Bush brief to high court doesn't tackle affirmative-action ruling

Seattle Times ^ | January 17, 2003

[sarcasm]

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will not ask the Supreme Court to overturn an affirmative-action ruling that for 25 years has allowed an applicant's race to be a factor in university admissions.

In legal papers yesterday, the administration staked a narrow position opposing race-conscious University of Michigan admissions policies now before the Supreme Court but offered no guidance to justices on the key question of whether they should scrap the 1978 Bakke ruling, a White House official said. That ruling outlawed racial quotas in university admissions, but left room for race to be a "plus factor."

The government's brief says there is no need to address the issue of what the outer bounds of the Constitution may permit, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Bush on Wednesday said admission policies at Michigan and its law school amounted to de facto quotas that are "divisive, unfair and impossible to square with the Constitution."

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