Valencia secures a good grade with a 4.0 GPA in her admission test. However, she is denied admission by a community college. She files a suit stating that she was discriminated against on the basis of race. She claims that she was rejected because the college used race as an important factor, giving applicants belonging to minority groups a greater chance for admission than students with similar credentials belonging to disfavored racial groups. In deciding this case using the equal protection clause, which of the following approaches is most likely to be used by courts?
a. the minimum rationality approach
b. the strict scrutiny approach
c. the maximum rationality approach
d. the intermediate scrutiny approach
e. the quasi-scrutiny approach