A public interest law firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a challenge to Montgomery County Public Schools' middle school magnet admissions policies, alleging the district adopted race-neutral criteria to deliberately reduce opportunities for Asian American students.

The Pacific Legal Foundation filed the petition for writ of certiorari on Thursday on behalf of the Association for Education Fairness, which describes itself as a group of "concerned Asian-American parents in Montgomery County," according to Bethesda Magazine.

The policies at issue govern admissions to criteria-based magnet programs that serve students across the county, including those at Potomac-area middle schools. Whether the justices agree to hear the case is far from certain. The court receives roughly 4,000 petitions annually but decides fewer than 80 cases, according to PBS.

How the policies changed

The dispute traces back to a 2016 report by consulting firm Metis that found significant racial and socioeconomic disparities in enrollment for MCPS selective programs, particularly for Black and Latino students. In response, the district introduced field tests in 2018 and 2019 that included "peer grouping," which compared applicants against a cohort of 20 or more students from the same middle school, and "local norming," which sorted elementary schools into poverty bands and compared students within each band.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, MCPS shifted to lottery-based admissions. The district now uses a combined lottery and criteria-based system that weighs grades and assessments, according to the MCPS website.

The Association for Education Fairness first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in 2020. That court concluded the complaint did not plausibly state that the policy disparately impacts Asian Americans or that it was implemented with discriminatory intent. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal in 2024. The Supreme Court petition is the next step.

The Pacific Legal Foundation argued in a Tuesday press release that MCPS "adopted facially race-neutral admissions criteria to achieve preferred racial outcomes," as reported by Bethesda Magazine.

MCPS responds

MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram rejected the characterization that the district's admissions process disadvantages any racial or ethnic group. Cram said the claims relate to practices from the COVID-19 period and that MCPS has since conducted a comprehensive review of its admissions processes.

"Admission to middle school criteria-based programs is determined through a centralized review process that considers multiple academic measures," Cram told Bethesda Magazine on Monday.

Broader context

The petition arrives after the Supreme Court's 2023 decision eliminating affirmative action in college admissions, which also involved allegations of discrimination against Asian American applicants. It marks at least the second time in recent years the high court has been asked to hear an MCPS case. In June 2025, the justices ruled that MCPS must allow families to opt out of materials they object to on religious grounds.

Separately, MCPS is considering a broader restructuring of its magnet and specialty programs into regional systems, according to a June 15 report by Wootton Common Sense. The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations has opposed moving quickly on those changes and called for more community input.