Mich. affirmative action ban to be challenged in U.S. court of appeals
By Meredith Skrzypczak (Last updated: 11/17/09 12:05am)Michigan’s affirmative action ban will be challenged today in a federal appeals court in Ohio, and despite any success the lawsuit might have, university officials said admissions still will reflect a diverse student body.
The lawsuit represents the efforts of a number of University of Michigan students, prospective students and faculty to prove that the ban is unconstitutional.
The ban was passed in 2006 and outlawed racial preferences in public university admissions and government hiring. The plaintiffs sued the state, various universities and their presidents, MSU law professor Brian Kalt said.
Paulette Granberry Russell, director of the MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, said forming a diverse student body always has been a university goal and will not change based on the decision of a federal appeals court.
“Prior to the passage of Proposition 2 and subsequent to passage of Proposition 2, MSU’s admissions process was a holistic admissions process,” she said.
After the ban passed, there was concern among students and parents that the amendment would stall the recruitment of diverse students at MSU, Granberry Russell said.
“Our approach … was not impacted by Proposition 2,” she said. “Achieving a diverse student body through admission continues to be part of our efforts … (and) part of our goal to increase the representation of students of color at MSU.”
Katherine Lixey, an interdisciplinary studies in social science and international studies senior, said she supports anyone promoting affirmative action in Michigan.
“A lot of people think inequalities are gone just because it’s 2009, but there’s a lot of history … a lot of discrimination that we still kind of have to make up for,” she said.
Max McPhail worked on the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or Proposition 2, campaign as its spokesman and said he doesn’t expect the lawsuit to
have success.
“Civil rights mean equal rights for all people regardless of race or sex,” he said. “This lawsuit is meritless.”
MSU Trustee Colleen McNamara said she supports affirmative action, but does not believe its absence prevents minorities from applying to MSU.
“I support affirmative action. … I always have,” she said. “We’ve had more people applying year after year to come to MSU. … I don’t think (Proposition 2) stops you from applying.”
If the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati rules the ban is unconstitutional, it probably would be appealed to the Supreme Court, Kalt said.
“Any time a state law is struck down on constitutional grounds, the U.S. Supreme Court is much more likely to take that case,” he said.
Bryant Crutcher, a case manager for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said it is impossible to determine what kind of decision might be reached in the
appeals court.
If the U.S. Supreme Court found the state proposition violated the federal Constitution, the state law would be struck down, MSU law professor Frank Ravitch said.
Even if the appeals court ruled the ban unconstitutional, the controversy surrounding the issue would continue, Granberry Russell said.
Originally Published: 11/17/09 12:03am
I'm and Amendment To Be
11/17/09 1:42amIt’s tit for tat. If the federal government won’t recognize our Constitution enacted by the people, then we should immediately stop recognizing the U.S. federal government that cherry picks provisions of the U.S. Constitution to its liking and to the people’s outrage.
Representatives
11/17/09 1:53amThe biggest lie is that a person can be a “representative” of their race or ethnicity in college admissions. Who in the hell voted for you arrogant, self important folks?
student
11/17/09 2:38amI am indifferent about Affirmative Action in higher education because universities will always recruit minorities and international students. There are different ways to do so and different reasons for it. Before the ban they identified ethnicity, now they identify geographic region. Then, the reasons to do this increase every year as Americans study less math, sciences and technology. Therefore, American universities recruit international students that can satisfy those academic and professional needs. This last reason is one entirely supported by the Federal Government and it goes hand in hand with maintaining the US in the forefront of scientific innovation for defense and other purposes.
reality
11/17/09 3:20amSkilled immigrants are major job and wealth creators: More than 33 percent of Michigan high-tech startup companies were begun by foreign-born founders between 1995 and 2005 and most of those immigrants were lured to the state by its research universities, according to a Duke University study.
Link: http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=128&id=22683&t=Michigan: tops for international exchange
Sparty
11/17/09 8:55amI completely understand how many many people are upset about the proposals passage and want to revoke it. There are ways to do that.
I absolutely have no idea how one could rule it was “unconstitutional”. While it’s easy to find reasons to dislike it, try as I may i cannot find even convoluted logic as to why it would be unconstitutional. Anyone, in a non-ranting way, care to let us know exactly how that leap was made?
Foreign Born Students Educated By Public State Universities
11/17/09 12:43pmPray tell, how many of those foreign born startups were educated in American universities? Necessarily filling up slots usually set aside for families who actually paid generations and lifetimes of taxes into the state university system?
What a corrupt bargain. Our public high schools have been corrupted beyond reproach, where the nearly retarded are rewarded and the gifted and talented are grouped in with them.
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The Truth
11/17/09 12:52pmAffirmative action is a racist policy against minorities. Under affirmative action minorities are portrayed as less intelligent and a class beneath the general population. By having no affirmative action minorities have finally achieved equality based on merit and ability and not on race.
RE: Student
11/17/09 1:23pmYou realize that you are talking about the professional and educational lottery from international countries and NOT affirmative action.
Jesus, this is why this didn’t pass, most of the neo-con morons don’t even know what they’re voting for. If any logical person actually knew what affirmative action was for, they would vote for it no matter the political affiliation. It’s a shame you morons can’t tell your heads from your a$$Es
RE: Above
11/17/09 1:41pmThat may be true (there have been a lot of rather… uh …interesting?… perspectives posted above) but again, the question is not if AA is a good thing but rather if it is constitutional. I still have yet to hear anyone make even a half-as*ed attempt to argue that point.
Above Correction
11/17/09 1:41pmSorry, i meant whether the ban on AA was constitutional, not whether AA was.
The Truth
11/17/09 2:41pmRE: Student, No logical individual is going to vote for a policy that gives an individual 100 more points on an entrance exam into U of M just because they are black. Number one that policy is discriminating against people based on their skin color. Number two that is slapping minorities such as African Americans in the face stating that because they are black they are not as intelligent as white or Asian people. Unless you’re going to make the argument that black people are inferior to other races AA is a dead law.
The Truth
11/17/09 2:51pm“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
-Martin Luther King
MLK
11/17/09 3:12pmBut my kids stopped dreaming and realized they would benefit by looting the working class with generational racial guilt in public employment and university admissions.
Tezcatlipoca
11/17/09 4:45pmwe should eliminate the chicano/latino studies program as well.
Ed T
11/17/09 7:34pmI don’t have a problem with universities factoring social justice (AA) issues into their admission decisions. But it’s time to make it economically-based, not race-based. Does it make sense to give a middle-class black student preference over a poor white student?
Btw, this policy would still help many minority students, who are disproportionally poor, and there would be much less resistance to it among the general public.
Hundreds of Thousands of Severed Limbs Can't Be Wrong
11/18/09 12:57amReality check: how many limbs were lost by Union troops in the Civil War eliminating slavery in just the South? Keep AA down in Dixie if you want to continue to punish people for sins of the fathers.
Meanwhile, us northern whites are descended from Union soldiers who lost THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF THEIR LIMBS fighting their own race to free you po’ black folks.
Keep AA dead in Michigan. We already paid the price of the South’s abominable practice of slavery.
Bleed Green
11/18/09 12:42pmTo the above poster:
Your comment is insulting and misguided.
Affirmative Action is not some form of REPARATION for slavery, it is an attempt to factor in real, current inequalities in education. I am with Ed T, in that AA should be based on economic factors instead of strict racial factors.
...The fact remains that many lower-class students aren’t given the same educational opportunities (K-12) as their more affluent counterparts.
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Student
11/23/09 4:42amI understand Affirmative Action is used to make up the deficit between the number of students from wealth backgrounds who get to go to college and those from poorer backgrounds who, with out AA would have the same opportunity. Yes the distribution of income tends to favor Caucasians, but instead of having AA based on race, why not do it on income or the whether or not a student comes from an underprivileged area.
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