Law school applicant who wanted his 1970s GPA adjusted for grade inflation won't get SCOTUS hearing
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A law school applicant who wanted his undergraduate grades adjusted to take into account subsequent grade inflation has failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to take his case.
The applicant, Michael Kamps, had sued officials of Baylor University and its law school for failing to admit him for his preferred terms and for denying him a scholarship, Texas Lawyer (sub. req.) reports. Kamps had claimed age bias and retaliation for the bias complaint. The U.S. Supreme Court denied cert (PDF) on Monday.
Kamps, 57, graduated from college in 1979. He claimed that the defendants created a bias against applicants who went to college before grade inflation that has taken place since the late 1970s. When he complained about the bias, Kamps alleged, the defendants retaliated by denying him admission for the fall of 2012 and raising the weight given to undergraduate grades in selecting recipients of merit-based scholarships.
In a November 2014 decision (PDF), the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that the law school offered to admit Kamps on other occasions, and said the scholarship criteria had been changed long before Kamps applied. The appeals court said the Age Discrimination Act was not violated because GPA is one of the best predictors of academic success in law school.
Kamps, who represented himself, did not go to law school. He told Texas Lawyer he thought his case raised an interesting question, “but I guess this is the end of the road.”
