Free Republic

Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court set the terms for boosting college admissions of African Americans and other minorities, the court may be about to issue a ruling that could restrict universities' use of race in deciding who is awarded places. The case before the justices was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white suburban Houston student who asserted she was wrongly rejected by the University of Texas at Austin while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted.

When the campaign to ban race-conscious programs in Michigan faced lawsuits and internal disagreements this spring, most assumed it would implode and fade away. But the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is still active, and its leaders expect to finish its goal in the next month. The group is currently gathering signatures to eliminate the use of race in public education, employment and contracting. It must collect 317,757 signatures by January 2005 to get its issue on the ballot for 2006. MCRI began this January and sought to complete its drive in July to place the proposal on the November ballot....