Posted on 12/05/2001 9:27:33 AM PST by Moleman
ANN ARBOR -- The challenges to the University of Michigan's undergraduate and law school admissions policies, to be heard Thursday by a federal appeals court, were once part of a crowded national docket of cases challenging affirmative action in higher education.
Now, they're alone on the path to the U.S. Supreme Court and will be in a national spotlight when attorneys argue the cases before the entire 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
A similar challenge at the University of Texas is over and the University of Georgia decided last month not to appeal a decision that struck down its admissions program. That makes it more likely that if the Supreme Court decides how schools can consider race in admissions, the U-M lawsuits will be the test case.
"There was already a lot of attention and importance on it, but this makes it more so," said Curt Levey of the Center for Individual Rights, the Washington-based law firm representing white applicants who say they were discriminated against in favor of less-qualified minorities. "The judges will hopefully be mindful that the Supreme Court is watching."
All nine active judges of the appeals court will hear the cases, a highly unusual move. The entire court rarely hears a case until after a three-judge panel decides it.
Six of the judges were appointed by Democrats and three by Republican presidents. Three are women and two are African American. Their decision will become law in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Among those attending will be outgoing U-M President Lee Bollinger, and plaintiffs Jennifer Gratz, a white Southgate resident denied admission to the undergraduate school, and Barbara Grutter, the white mother from Plymouth Township who wasn't accepted to the law school. Outside, the Rev. Al Sharpton is expected to lead a demonstration of affirmative action supporters.
Judges throughout the country have issued conflicting opinions on using race in admissions. In Detroit, one judge upheld affirmative action in U-M undergraduate admissions, while another struck down its use in law school admissions.
U-M argues that getting a diverse student body is important enough to consider race, while the plaintiffs argue that decisions based on race are unconstitutional.
Miranda Massie, a Detroit attorney representing minority students involved in the case, will argue that societal inequalities between whites and minorities require affirmative action.
"This is a case about whether we continue to move forward toward equality or whether we go back to the days of separate and unequal, of segregation," she said.
It has been almost 25 years since the Supreme Court set the ambiguous standard. In a 1978 case, the justices allowed some use of racial preferences in admissions. The question since has been whether a goal of racial diversity can be one of those justifications.
I'd lay down a bet based on those two bits of information alone.
So if minorities are given the chance to compete on merit rather than melanin, we will wind up with segregated schools? Who are the racists? Who are the people saying minorities can't compete?
Well put. That's it, in a nutshell.
Do they want us to NOT notice race or do they want us to ALWAYS NOTICE race?
I suppose the formule is, if it's a crime, race doesn't matter. If it's a windfall lawsuit, then race does matter.
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