Doherty v. Rutgers School of Law-Newark, LAW-NEWARK
| Decision Date | 16 June 1981 |
| Docket Number | LAW-NEWARK,80-1787,Nos. 80-1786,s. 80-1786 |
| Parties | Robert L. DOHERTY, Appellant, v. RUTGERS SCHOOL OF; State of New Jersey; Peter Simmons, Dean; Stevens L. Lefelt, Director of Admissions; Oliver B. Quinn, Assistant Dean For Minority Student Program; and the Faculty-Student Committee of Admissions; Appellees, and Asian American Law Students Association, Tom Lee Ching Chiu, and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.; and Association of Black Law Students, Arlene Munn and Albert Foster; and Association of Latin American Law Students of Rutgers School of Law-Newark, Uladio Santiago and Helida Pacheco; and The Student Bar Association of Rutgers School of Law-Newark Federacion Latino Americanos, Lazaro Alvarez, Anthony Gartmond and Iris Muniz; and The Women's Caucus of the Rutgers School of Law, Newark, New Jersey, Intervenors. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Robert L. Doherty (argued), pro se.
Clyde A. Szuch (argued), Marc S. Klein, Pitney, Hardin & Kipp, Morristown, N. J., for appellees Rutgers, The State University, Peter Simmons, Steven L. Lefelt, and Oliver B. Quinn; Ronnie F. Liebowitz, University Counsel, Morristown, N. J., of counsel.
John J. Degnan, Atty. Gen. of New Jersey, Mark I. Siman, Deputy Atty. Gen. (argued), Trenton, N. J., for appellee, State of New Jersey; Erminie L. Conley, Asst. Atty. Gen., Trenton, N. J., of counsel.
Patricia A. Thornton, Urban Legal Clinic, Newark, N. J., for intervenor, Association of Black Law Students, et al., Ramon Ortiz, Newark, N. J., for intervenor, Association of Latin American Law Students, et al.
Morton Stavis and Lennox Hinds, Newark, N. J., for intervenor, Student Bar Ass'n, et al.; Patricia A. Thornton, Nadine Taub, Frank Askin, Denise Reinhardt, Newark, N. J., on brief.
Nadine Taub, Denise Reinhardt, Newark, N. J., for intervenor, The Women's Caucus of the Rutgers School of Law.
Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, and ROSENN and SLOVITER, Circuit Judges.
The issue presented in this appeal is whether an applicant for admission to a state university law school may challenge the law school's admission policies in the face of a finding that he did not possess the qualifications to have been admitted in the absence of the minority student program he challenges. The district court, after conducting an evidentiary hearing on the issue, held that the applicant lacked standing and granted the defendants' motion to dismiss. Doherty v. Rutgers School of Law-Newark, 487 F.Supp. 1291 (D.N.J.1980). We affirm.
Robert Doherty, appellant, filed this pro se action after the rejection of his application for admission to the Rutgers University School of Law at Newark (hereinafter referred to as "Rutgers" or "the Law School") for the 1979-80 academic year. He sued the Law School, several of its administrative officials, and the State of New Jersey 1 alleging that the Law School had adopted an admissions procedure which violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 et seq. (1976); Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq. (1976); Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (1976); Title II of the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1703 et seq. (1976); and Article I, paragraph 5 of the New Jersey Constitution. 2 Essentially, Doherty attacks the Minority Student Admissions Program at the Law School which reserves 30% of the available positions for "minorities", a classification which includes "disadvantaged" white applicants. He also claims that the Law School reserves 50% of the admissions for women, which it allegedly accomplished by changing admissions criteria until this percentage of women was obtained.
Some explanation of the Rutgers' admission process is necessary to an understanding of the standing issue on which this case turns. The material facts concerning that process and Doherty's qualifications were presented by Rutgers in various affidavits and exhibits in support of its motion to dismiss the complaint. Doherty submitted no responsive affidavits or other evidence, so the essential facts are uncontroverted.
Students considered for admission to the Law School under the regular admissions program at the relevant time were evaluated under both objective and subjective criteria. The objective stage was based on three factors: the applicant's college grade point average (GPA) as computed and provided to the Law School by the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS); 3 the applicant's score on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), which is administered several times a year by the Educational Testing Service, and the "competition bonus" (CB) element by which the Law School seeks to adjust for highly competitive undergraduate schools by awarding an applicant 25, 50, 75 or 100 CB points, depending on the extent to which the average LSAT score from the applicant's undergraduate college is greater than the national average LSAT score. The first stage score is calculated by adding the sum of the GPA multiplied by 322 to the LSAT score and the CB points, if any. The maximum possible score from the objective criteria considered in the first stage is 2188, which would be achieved if an applicant had a 4.0 GPA and an 800 LSAT score, and received all 100 CB points.
The second stage of review in the regular admissions program considers five subjective factors: (1) education; (2) work experience; (3) personal information, including an essay; (4) a recommendation; and (5) grade inflation. A maximum of 130 points can be awarded for each of the first four factors in the second stage and a maximum of 160 points can be awarded for the fifth. The maximum possible score from this stage is thus 680 points. No points are awarded on account of the applicant's sex. The factors in the second stage and their weight are established by the Faculty-Student Admissions Committee. The maximum possible total score of stages one and two is 2868.
Pursuant to Faculty-Student Admissions Committee guidelines, the Director of Admissions determines a point below which an applicant is rejected, commonly called the cut-off point, by comparing the lowest score from the previous year's admissions with a summary of the scores from the first 300 applicants whose files are complete. If the total from the first stage plus the maximum possible from the second stage is not greater than the cut-off point, the applicant is denied admission. If the score is greater than the cut-off point, the applicant's background is evaluated and points are assigned based upon the subjective criteria, set forth above, of the second stage.
The Minority Student Admissions Program (MSP) is described in the Law School Bulletin as a plan designed to increase the number of minorities in the school through emphasis on less objective factors in the selection process. Thirty percent of the entering class is composed of students admitted through the minority student program. The concept of "minority" in the MSP includes economically or culturally disadvantaged white applicants.
Determination of an applicant's eligibility for consideration under the MSP is based on the applicant's response to questions regarding his or her racial group, ethnic group and socio-economic background, which seek to ascertain whether the applicant is culturally, economically or educationally disadvantaged in some way. If the Director of MSP, who reviews the applications, finds the applicant to be eligible, the application is evaluated according to MSP guidelines. Otherwise, the application is returned for consideration under the regular admissions program.
Evaluation under the Minority Student Program also has two stages, but differs from the regular admissions process in that near equal weight is given to both the "objective" and "subjective" criteria. The first stage score is composed of the applicant's GPA multiplied by 322, plus the applicant's LSAT score. No CB points are awarded. Thus the maximum possible score is 2088.
In the second stage various subjective factors are scored according to criteria established by the Law School Faculty. A maximum of 800 points may be awarded for the special circumstances pertaining to an applicant's education, particularly a pattern of improvement, academic honors and graduate degrees. Work experience provides a possible 300 points. A letter of recommendation may be worth a maximum 300 points. Work in public interest or voluntary community causes could merit up to 300 points, and the applicant's essay can provide an additional 300 points. The maximum possible points from the second stage is 2000.
Doherty applied to the Law School in March 1979. Although he responded to the optional questions in the application concerning ethnicity and cultural, educational and economic disadvantages, his response was that he had a "cultural advantage", and he concedes that he did not seek admission through the MSP and is not "disadvantaged" within the scope of that program. 4 His application was in fact reviewed under the Minority Student Program because he had responded to the optional questions but he was found ineligible under the MSP guidelines and his application was thereafter reviewed under the regular admissions program.
Doherty's GPA as determined by LSDAS was 1.85, his relevant LSAT score was 576, and he was not entitled to any CB points because the average LSAT score of his undergraduate school, Montclair State College, was less than the national average. Thus, his score from the objective factors was calculated as 596 (GPA 1.85 X 322) k 576, or 1172 of a possible 2188 points. 5
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