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Podcast: The Facts Behind the Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Case

Attorney Bert Rein speaks to the media while standing with plaintiff Abigail Noel Fisher after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in her case on Oct. 10, 2012. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Abigail Fisher, the 23-year-old plaintiff in the affirmative action case currently before the Supreme Court, has been portrayed as the textbook example of reverse discrimination. She was a solid student, participated in extracurriculars, and claims to have been rejected from the University of Texas at Austin for nothing more than the fact that she's white.

However, ProPublica's Nikole Hannah-Jones took a closer look at the documents in the case, and found that race had little, if anything at all, to do with the university's decision to deny Fisher admission.

She sat down with ProPublica's editor-in-chief Steve Engelberg to discuss her investigation; how backers of Fisher's case seek to make it a referendum on the 14th Amendment itself; and how, for all her trouble, Fisher is only seeking a grand total of $100 in damages.

You can read Hannah-Jones's investigation on our website. You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

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