White Woman Says Race Kept Her From Law School

A woman has filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against the University of Washington law school, claiming she was denied admission because she is white.

Katuria E. Smith’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court here, alleges the law school “used different admissions standards based on each student’s self-identified race.”

“As a result, students from favored racial groups had a significantly greater chance of admission than students with similar academic credentials from disfavored racial groups,” the suit says.

UW officials could not comment on the case because they had not had a chance to review it, said Norm Arkans, executive director of university relations.

Smith, who is a law student at Seattle University, is asking for financial compensation because she was forced to attend a less prestigious and more expensive law school as a result of the UW’s rejection in March 1994.

“More than anything else, I just think it’s wrong,” she said. “It’s a principle issue for me.”

The 31-year-old student said her application included a 95th percentile score on the Law School Admissions Test.

Smith received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1994 at the UW, with quarterly grade-point averages that ran from 3.56 to 3.79 on a 4.0 scale, according to her transcript, which was also submitted with the application.

She is receiving legal support from the Center for Individual Rights, a small nonprofit firm in Washington, D.C., that has played a role in a number of recent anti-affirmative-action lawsuits.

The firm said it took Smith’s case based on its legal strength and the fact that it would be filed in a new federal court circuit.