Wisconsin Supreme Court Voids Minority Grant Program for 770 Students Under 14th Amendment
Updated
Updated · WPR · Jun 18
Wisconsin Supreme Court Voids Minority Grant Program for 770 Students Under 14th Amendment
3 articles · Updated · WPR · Jun 18
Summary
A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on Thursday barred the Higher Educational Aids Board from continuing a minority undergraduate retention grant program, ending aid that totaled $440,433 for 770 students in 2023-24.
Justice Annette Ziegler wrote that the program violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that sharply limited race-based college admissions.
The grants, created in the 1985-87 state budget, were awarded by financial need but limited to students defined in statute as Black, American Indian, Hispanic, or certain Southeast Asian groups, with awards of $250 to $2,500 a year.
Conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which sued on behalf of taxpayers, called the decision a major win, while liberal justices said they were bound by federal precedent even as Chief Justice Jill Karofsky highlighted persistent racial inequities in Wisconsin.