Legislative motive is back in court, but it shouldn’t last. In Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, the Fourth Circuit upheld a facially race-neutral admissions policy to a competitive public magnet school in an Arlington Heights challenge despite extensive evidence of the School Board’s racially dis-criminatory motive and the policy’s disparate racial impact. The opinions in TJ mark the first bout in the next phase of litigation after Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. This Article examines how the TJ decision exemplifies the irredeemable workability issues attendant to judicial examination of legisla-tive motive under Arlington Heights, details the aberration from legal history and principle that the Arlington Heights regime represents, and argues why, both normatively and legally, Arlington Heights should be abandoned.

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