Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bush May Enter Affirmative Action Case...
Associated Press

Posted on 01/10/2003 6:25:04 PM PST by RCW2001

By Ron Fournier
AP White House Correspondent
Friday, January 10, 2003; 8:56 PM

WASHINGTON –– Bush administration lawyers are laying the groundwork to oppose a University of Michigan program that gives preference to minority students, a step that would inject President Bush into the biggest affirmative action case in a generation.

Bush himself has not decided what role, if any, the administration will play in the landmark case but several officials said Friday night he is unlikely to stay on the sidelines. White House political allies are planning to intervene against the Michigan program nonetheless.

The administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, pointed to Bush's record in Texas and their continuing review of Clinton administration affirmative action cases as signs that the president is inclined to oppose the university's policies. Furthermore, he is likely to suggest alternatives to racial preferences that still promote diversity, officials said.

Bush is awaiting formal recommendations from Justice Department and White House lawyers before making his decision.

The Supreme Court, in its most important case this year, is expected to rule on the constitutionality of programs that gave black and Hispanic students an edge when applying to the University of Michigan and its law school.

The issue is a lightning rod both for conservative voters who back Bush and for minority voters, whom Republicans are courting.

Further complicating the White House's decision is the fallout for the GOP from the racially provocative comments that cost Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., his job as Senate majority leader. Bush denounced Lott's remarks, which were widely interpreted as nostalgia for segregation.

Siding with white students so soon after the Lott controversy could be seen as an affront to blacks.

The administration is not a party to the Michigan fight and does not have to take a position. Traditionally, however, the White House weighs in on potentially landmark cases.

Bush must decide soon. Legal briefs opposing affirmative action are due to the court Jan. 16, and briefs supporting the Michigan admissions plans are due in February.

Lawyers for political allies of the White House are drafting friend-of-the-court briefs arguing that the University of Michigan policy is unconstitutional, administration officials said.

The Justice Department is awaiting word from Bush on whether to file a brief of its own. At the least, Bush is expected to take a public stand on the matter and explain his position that racial quotas are not needed to foster diversity, officials said.

In Texas, Bush opposed racial preferences in public universities and proposed instead that students graduating in the top 10 percent of all high schools be eligible for admission. Supporters say the policy increased diversity because many schools are largely minority.

Among the cases that would bolster their argument against the University of Michigan, officials said, is a 1997 affirmative action suit that supported a white high school teacher's claim that she suffered reverse discrimination when laid off from her job. A black teacher was retained.

The Clinton administration argued that the school district's affirmative action policy went too far and could not be justified merely by the notion that a diverse teacher corps is a worthy goal.

"A simple desire to promote diversity for its own sake ... is not a permissible basis for taking race into account," the government said then.

The brief was largely written by Walter Dellinger, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel and later the Clinton administration's acting solicitor general. Administration lawyers consider at least one other Dellinger brief, a case involving a Wisconsin teacher, as further basis to argue against the University of Michigan policy.

Contacted Friday, Dellinger said the reasoning assumed that there is some role for affirmative action but noted that the tool can be wrongly used.

"The general position taken was that while the use of race is sometimes permissible in educational settings, it must be narrowly tailored and shown to advance important educational goals," he said.

In a 1995 memo analyzing the effects of a Supreme Court case over affirmative action in government contracting, the Clinton administration's Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel noted that the Supreme Court has consistently rejected racial balancing as a goal of affirmative action.

"To the extent that affirmative action is used to foster racial and ethnic diversity, the government must seek some further objective beyond the achievement of diversity itself," said the memo, largely written by Dellinger.

© 2003 The Associated Press


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 421-429 next last

1 posted on 01/10/2003 6:25:05 PM PST by RCW2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

DONATE TODAY!!!.
SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC

Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD


2 posted on 01/10/2003 6:25:26 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
Equal treatment by race... now there's a concept.
3 posted on 01/10/2003 6:26:52 PM PST by Interesting Times
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
The author apparently doesn't understand that affirmative action is demenaing to the ones it is supposed to help because there is the impression that the position wasn't earned.
4 posted on 01/10/2003 6:28:43 PM PST by nhoward14 (We are not a clone.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Interesting Times
Either this, or repaint the Executive Mansion, make it the Black House. Or Bleak House.
5 posted on 01/10/2003 6:29:10 PM PST by crystalk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: nhoward14
Well, this is going to upset a lot of spammers on this forum.
6 posted on 01/10/2003 6:30:05 PM PST by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
He best do something! Conservatives are watching this one close!

Bennett advises that in the coming year a civil rights agenda should be crafted around three action items:

• Ending the double standard of racial preferences in higher education admissions: The Bush Administration and Members of Congress should immediately file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of the plaintiffs in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820348/posts?page=


7 posted on 01/10/2003 6:31:50 PM PST by TLBSHOW (Keeping the Republicans Feet to the fire is a 24/7 job for conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dogbyte12; Luis Gonzalez
FYI.
8 posted on 01/10/2003 6:32:14 PM PST by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
Go President Bush!
I pray that the evil of racial quotas will be struck down!
U of M is a hideous liberal hive of vilinary and MUST be taught a lesson in what is right. Racial quotas are pure descrimination period. Diversity simplify for the sake of diversity is mindless.
9 posted on 01/10/2003 6:32:54 PM PST by Moleman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
The issue is a lightning rod both for conservative voters who back Bush

FEET TO THE FIRE DID IT
10 posted on 01/10/2003 6:32:56 PM PST by TLBSHOW (Keeping the Republicans Feet to the fire is a 24/7 job for conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
Darn, once again conservatism has disrupted the peace.
11 posted on 01/10/2003 6:33:03 PM PST by nhoward14 (Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Howlin
looks like you may lose again
12 posted on 01/10/2003 6:33:29 PM PST by TLBSHOW (Keeping the Republicans Feet to the fire is a 24/7 job for conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
This must be fake, Bush is RINO, he's no different than Gore, his supporters are Bushbots, etc., etc., etc.
13 posted on 01/10/2003 6:33:35 PM PST by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Interesting Times
Words of Advice: The speech the president should give on the Michigan cases.
National Review ^

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820342/posts?page=9#9
14 posted on 01/10/2003 6:34:14 PM PST by TLBSHOW (Keeping the Republicans Feet to the fire is a 24/7 job for conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
To unnecessarily inject himself into this case is counter to his goal to enlarge the Republican party. He is wise enough not to touch this one.
15 posted on 01/10/2003 6:34:17 PM PST by Rockitz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TLBSHOW
He best do something! Conservatives are watching this one close!

Maybe if you call him a weep weep ratty rat and start Slaming him but good, the president will see the truth.

Admit it Todd. You were wrong.

16 posted on 01/10/2003 6:35:17 PM PST by dogbyte12
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: TLBSHOW
I've never lost anything to you. You're bordering on lunacy.
17 posted on 01/10/2003 6:36:02 PM PST by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: TLBSHOW
One thing I've learn in dealing with Bush is that the media don't know jack about what he's going to do on a particular issue.

Yesterday the media said he's staying out, today he "may" enter. Tomorrow it's a tossup. Until Bush says it I'll believe it then. Until then the print and news media have stories to sell.

How do you keep it all together considering the sources we have to choose from concerning Bush?
18 posted on 01/10/2003 6:37:38 PM PST by swheats
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: swheats
How do you keep it all together considering the sources we have to choose from concerning Bush?

Oh, that's an easy question. He just finds the source that makes Bush look the worst and goes with it.

19 posted on 01/10/2003 6:39:12 PM PST by Howlin (Ignore Todd Spam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: cynicom; Fred Mertz; SJackson; aristeides; Red Jones; optimistically_conservative
Unlike Bush Bots, those of us holding Bush's feet to the fire may prove to be the winners along with all real conservatives!

We will see as...

LOL


http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3af3a18179a5.htm

Affirmative action-- Quotas on trial (Thomas Sowell)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820114/posts

affirmative action--White House set to stay out of affirmative-action case
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/819379/posts

affirmative action--White House torn over affirmative action case
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820077/posts

affirmative action--Words of Advice: The speech the president should give on the Michigan cases.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820342/posts


20 posted on 01/10/2003 6:40:24 PM PST by TLBSHOW (Keeping the Republicans Feet to the fire is a 24/7 job for conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 421-429 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson