Hopwood Case

The Texas Legal Foundation was founded by Steve Smith in 1994. Its first clients were two of the four plaintiffs in the Hopwood v. Texas case, which ended racial preferences in admissions and scholarships at Texas universities from 1996 until 2003.

In September 1992, Steve Smith filed the original Hopwood v. Texas complaint (pdf file) in federal district court. He served as lead counsel for the first nine months. During that time period, discovery was limited to the issues of standing and ripeness; issues on which the plaintiffs prevailed. In July 1993, the Center for Individual Rights and Terral Smith entered the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs. Although his role changed after CIR and Terral Smith became involved, Steve Smith remained an important member of the plaintiffs' litigation team. In August 1994, Judge Sparks entered a declaratory judgment that the admissions procedure used by the University of Texas School of Law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

On appeal, Steve Smith, in his capacity as TLF's general counsel, served as the sole attorney for plaintiffs Kenneth Elliott and David Rogers. In their appellate brief (pdf file), Smith asserted that Justice Powell's Bakke concurrence was not controlling precedent. In March 1996, the Fifth Circuit agreed, holding that no compelling state interest supported the racial preferences used by the law school. See Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996).

The March 1996 Hopwood decision was named the number one legal story of the year by Texas Lawyer magazine. TLF's brief on behalf of Elliott and Rogers clearly played a pivotal role in the Fifth Circuit's decision-making process.

On remand, Steve Smith served as trial counsel for Elliott and Rogers in the second "damages" trial ordered by the Fifth Circuit. He also served as the sole attorney for Elliott and Rogers during the second appeal.

The United States Supreme Court twice refused to grant certiorari and the parties finally settled the lawsuit in November 2001. In total, Steve Smith worked more than 1,500 hours filing, litigating, and winning the Hopwood v. Texas case.