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The Supreme Court is rewinding the track, going back in time to review and consider new limits on the contentious issue of affirmative action programs.

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A challenge from a white student who was denied admission to the University of Texas flagship campus will be the high court’s first look at affirmative action in higher education since its 2003 decision endorsing the use of race as a factor.

According to the Associated Press, this time around, a more conservative court will be reviewing the earlier ruling, or at least limit when colleges may take account of race in admissions.

However the justices won’t get a chance to hear the affirmative action case until the fall.

A broad ruling in favor of the student, Abigail Fisher, could threaten affirmative action programs at many of the nation’s public and private universities, said Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick.

A federal appeals court upheld the Texas program at issue, saying it was allowed under the high court’s decision in Grutter vs. Bollinger in 2003 that upheld racial considerations in university admissions at the University of Michigan Law School.

But there have been changes in the Supreme Court since then. For one thing, Justice Samuel Alito appears more hostile to affirmative action than his predecessor, Sandra Day O’Connor.

For another, Justice Elena Kagan, who might be expected to vote with the court’s liberal-leaning justices in support of it, is not taking part in the case.

Kagan’s absence probably is a result of the Justice Department’s participation in the Texas case in the lower courts at a time when she served as the Obama administration’s solicitor general.

Either way, the court taking a look at affirmative action once more will definitely draw media attention.