A federal judge has refused to order the University of Texas at Austin to re-evaluate, without any consideration of race or ethnicity, the applications of two white students who have sued the institution, challenging its admissions policies as discriminatory. The lawsuit is continuing.

In a ruling issued late today, Judge Sam Sparks of the U.S. District Court in Austin said the lawyers for the two applicants had failed to show that there was a substantial likelihood the students would have been admitted had the university not considered some applicants’ race. The judge also said the lawyers had failed to show that the students would be irreparably harmed if their applications were not re-evaluated in a race-neutral manner while their lawsuit was pending.

The judge said he did not yet have reason to believe there was a strong likelihood the plaintiffs would prevail because the case had not progressed far enough for him to pass judgment on the university’s assertions that it needed to give some consideration to race and ethnicity to enroll a “critical mass” of black and Hispanic students. He said he did not think the potential harm to the two students justified the burden that would be placed on the university if he issued a preliminary order, possibly opening the door for hundreds or thousands of other students to appeal recent admissions decisions.

The lawsuit alleges that the university has no legal justification for using affirmative-action preferences because it has already found it can bring about sufficient levels of campus diversity through race-neutral means, such as its compliance with a state law requiring it to admit young Texans in the top 10th of their high-school class. —Peter Schmidt