<P> Texas House Bill 588, commonly referred to as the "Top 10% Rule", is a Texas law passed in 1997 . </P> <P> The law guarantees Texas students who graduated in the top ten percent of their high school class automatic admission to all state - funded universities . The bill was created as a means to avoid the stipulations from the Hopwood v. Texas appeals court case banning the use of affirmative action . The Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) that affirmative action in college admissions was permissible, effectively overruling Hopwood . UT Austin then reinstated affirmative action for the seats not filled by the Top Ten Percent law . </P>

When did the state of texas initiate the top 10 percent plan