 Under the Supreme Court's precedents on racial classification in higher education, "Grutter v. Bollinger" and "Gratz v. Bollinger", race-based classifications must be directed toward a "compelling government interest" and must be "narrowly tailored" to that interest.Applying these precedents to K-12 education, the Circuit Court found that the tiebreaker scheme was not narrowly tailored.The District then petitioned for an "en banc" ruling by a panel of 11 Ninth Circuit judges.