Old UM Racial Quotas Unconstitutional, Judge Rules.
But New Racial Quotas are Legal!
Updated June 26, 2003

          [DETROIT (AP) ] -- "In a case that may be headed for the Supreme Court, a federal judge on Wednesday upheld the University of Michigan's use of affirmative action in its admissions policy.

          "The Michigan undergraduate case appears ultimately headed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.   If that court upholds affirmative action -- contradicting the other appeals court -- the Supreme Court may feel compelled to sort it all out.

(Excerpted from the 12/13/00 article by Jim Suhr of the Associated Press, via FoxNews)

[link http://foxnews.com/national/1213/d_ap_1213_139.sml ]

[ALSO SEE:  AP's update of the same story at FoxNews:
http://www.foxnews.com/national/1214/d_ap_1214_26.sml ]

Past racism at U-M becomes key to affirmative action case (12/12/00)

          [Detroit Free Press -- The day before Judge Duggan's ruling.] -- "The university's best hope of saving its affirmative action admissions policies may mean dredging up more than a century of embarrassing alleged discrimination at the elite school.

          "Lawyers for a group of minority students argue that past and present discrimination at U-M justifies the use of race in admissions to remedy the injustice.

          "The university had avoided that argument, saying instead that its goal of building a diverse student body was important enough to warrant a race-conscious admissions system.

           "The case was filed against U-M in 1997 on behalf of two former white applicants, Jennifer Gratz, 23, now of San Diego, and Patrick Hamacher, 21, of Flint, who charged they were denied admission in 1995 and 1997, respectively, in favor of less qualified minorities.

          "But the intervenors -- a coalition of minority students and groups -- argue it is they, not whites, who face a color barrier.

          "A key piece of the testimony will be data compiled for an expert witness report by James Anderson, chair of the department of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He documented a history of racism reaching back to the founding of U-M in 1817. It was not until 1868 that two black students were permitted to enroll.

          "Carole Simpson, now with ABC News, was one of about 65 black undergraduates in 1960. She lived in a dormitory with two other black women and whom the house mother referred to as "her Negresses," Simpson recalled.  "White students forced us to segregate ourselves," she said.

          "The university does not deny a history of discrimination but rather argues that a diverse student body combats discrimination and benefits all students, said Liz Barry, U-M's deputy cocounsel.   "We may have a different take on some of the specific incidents they cite ...but we wouldn't be so arrogant to assert that there has never been discrimination on our campus. We're part of society after all."

          "Undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts are now required to take a course dealing with issues of race and ethnicity. 

          "Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the discrimination argument ultimately can't succeed.

          "The university has never said past or present discrimination was the reason for starting its admissions policy, said Terry Pell, senior counsel for the Center for Individual Rights, a Washington D.C.-based law firm that represents Gratz and Hamacher in the class action suit.  "And the law says you can't use one rationale after the fact."

          "The reverse discrimination argument ...has discussed the harm done to whites and left minorities out of the equation," Dillard said. "It was defined by white lawyers. It's only now people will hear the other side of the argument. Who are the real victims here? Not whites. They are blacks and the other minorities."

(Excerpted from the article by Maryanne George in the Detroit Free Press, December 12, 2000)

[link http://www.freep.com/news/education/um12_20001212.htm ]

Story Archives:

Michigan (Ann Arbor):  Lawsuit could set precedent for race-based admissions (10/14/99)
          "A current lawsuit over affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan is bearing witness to a novel defense on the part of the University — the result of which will likely set an important precedent on race-based admissions throughout the country.

          "What separates Michigan’s legal battle from others heard in California and Texas is the University’s emphasis on the academic benefits of a diverse learning environment.

          "Because of the segregation and separation along racial lines in America, the University argues, there is a "compelling governmental interest" which justifies the consideration of race and ethnicity in the admission system.

          "If the U.S. District Court in Detroit rules in favor of the plaintiffs, the University would have to eliminate race-based admission preferences.

          "However, if the University is successful in its argument, federal district courts throughout the country will have made conflicting rulings on the same issue, and with different laws in place in different regions of the country, it is likely that the Supreme Court would hear an affirmative action case and establish a definitive admissions policy.

          "Karl Cohen, a professor of philosophy, is an example of a faculty member who disagrees with the University’s case.  'The matter is being discussed in a very thoughtful and respectful way.   Though they don’t like my view, I don’t feel any hostility on the part of the administration,' he said.  'We all prize the diversity on the campus, the question is whether we are willing to use racial preferences to achieve that.'"   (The Dartmouth 10/14/99 by Rachel Osterman)
[link http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php3?is_date=1999-10-14&date=1999-10-14&section=news&priority=1 ]

Michigan (Ann Arbor):  Minorities May Join Race Bias Lawsuits (08/11/99 - dead link)
          "Supporters of affirmative action won a court ruling yesterday allowing them to argue in possibly precedent-setting lawsuits why the University of Michigan should consider race when picking its students.

          "The 2-1 ruling from a federal appeals court came in class action lawsuits filed by three white applicants turned down by the University of Michigan.

          "The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said lower courts erred when they barred 58 individuals--most of them minority students at Michigan--and four groups from joining the school in fighting the lawsuits.

          "Lawyers for the minorities say they want to raise questions that Michigan won't. They say they would argue that the university discriminated against minorities in the past, and that the administration relies on racially biased standardized tests.

          "The appeals court's opinion said the groups met the legal burden for joining the case as defendants, and that they could be harmed if Michigan loses.  'There is little room for doubt that access to the University for African American and Latino/a students will be impaired to some extent and that a substantial decline in the enrollment of these students may well result if the University is precluded from considering race as a factor in admissions,'  the court said.

          "The three white applicants [plaintiffs] say Michigan's affirmative action admissions policies discriminated against them.  They say they were denied admission while the university admitted minorities with lower grades and test scores."  (Washington Post 08/11/99, from AP)
[former link *http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/11/101l-081199-idx.html]

Michigan (Ann Arbor):  UM and CIR file motions for summary judgment (05/04/99 - dead link)
          "The University filed two summary judgment motions yesterday in federal court asking judges to make a decision on two lawsuits challenging University admissions procedures.

          "In October 1997, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of two students who claim their applications for admission to the University's College of Literature, Science and the Arts were unfairly evaluated because of the use of race as a factor in the admissions process.

          "CIR later filed a second similar suit, targeting the University Law School's admissions procedures.

          "University Deputy General Counsel Elizabeth Barry said the summary judgment motion presents the University's expert testimony, outlines main arguments and asks the judge to form a decision based on the motion.  She said that rebuttal motions will be filed for the next few months preceding oral arguments in the cases, which she expects will be heard in July at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit.

          "Terry Pell, CIR's senior legal counsel, said he would not comment on the University's summary judgment motions until he had a chance to read them.  Pell said CIR filed its summary judgment motion in the Law School admissions lawsuit yesterday."  (The Michigan Daily 05/04/99 by Michael Grass)
[former link *http://www.michigandaily.com/daily/1999/may/05-04-99/news/news2.html]

Michigan (Ann Arbor): Plaintiffs attempt to eliminate trial -- Attorneys ask court for partial summary judgment (04/13/99)
          "The law firm suing the University of Michigan over its use of race in admissions has asked the judge in the case to make a ruling without going to trial.

          "Attorneys for the Center for Individual Rights [CIR], representing two white undergraduate applicants who charge they were denied admission to U-M in favor of less-qualified minority applicants, filed a motion for partial summary judgment in federal court in Detroit on Friday.

          "For U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan to make such a ruling, however, he must believe that there are no disputed facts on major issues in the case, regardless of what the litigants may believe is undisputed.

          "Terry Pell, senior counsel for CIR, said Monday that summary judgment rules stipulate that if the facts of a case are not in dispute, and the only question to be decided is how to interpret the relevant law, the judge can rule without first going to trial.  He said the U-M case fits those criteria based on information gathered during the discovery phase. The only question is whether U-M's admissions policy is legal under the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Regents of University of California vs. Bakke, Pell said."  (Michigan Live / Ann Arbor News 04/13/99 by Susan Carney)
[link http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/notria$01.frm ]

Michigan (Ann Arbor):  Racial preference foes increase pressure on colleges  (01/26/99 - dead link)
          "They say the color of their skin kept them out of the schools of their choice. Now, Katuria Smith, a white former law school candidate from Washington state, and Jessie Tompkins, a black college student from Alabama, are in court.

          " 'I want a future where students can apply ... without worrying that their skin color will keep them out,' said Smith, whose case against the University of Washington law school, which denied her admission, goes to trial next month.

          "Smith spoke Tuesday at a news conference sponsored by conservative groups to launch a campaign charging the nation's top colleges with illegally using racial preferences in admissions.

          "The Center for Individual Rights — a conservative private law firm handling the cases for Smith and Tompkins — is running ads in student newspapers headlined "Guilty by Admission'' that say nearly every elite college in the United States violates the law. The center also issued two 30-page handbooks, it says, to help students identify discrimination and to help institutions keep from getting sued. 

          " 'We've found use of racial ethnic preference in all of the states. The more selective schools tend to use preferences the most,'  said Roger Clegg, general counsel for the group".  (AP, via FoxNews, 01/26/99, by Anjetta Mcqueen)
[former link **http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/0126/n_ap_0126_277.sml]

Michigan (Ann Arbor):  Judge Certifies Class Action in 2nd Race Suit against UM
          "A second lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the University of Michigan's admissions policies was certified Thursday as a class action by a federal judge in Detroit.  The suit was filed in December 1997 by Barbara Grutter of Plymouth, a white woman who alleges she was denied admission to U-M's law school in 1996 because the school discriminates against whites by giving preferences to minorities. Grutter's case is one of two pending against U-M over its use of affirmative action in admissions.

          "A similar case was filed in October 1997 against the undergraduate policy in U-M's College of Literature, Science and the Arts. The undergraduate case also was certified as a class action by a different judge two weeks ago."  (Michigan Live, 01-08-99, by Susan Carney)
[ link http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/umsuits.frm ]

Michigan (Ann Arbor):  Center for Individual Rights Sues UM Law for Reverse Discrimination in Admissions
          UM Law School rejected Barbara Grutter's application because she is white.  "Caucasian American" candidates with Ms. Grutter's credentials (LSAT score of 161 and grade point average of 3.81) had an admission rate of just 8.6%. "African American" applicants with exactly the same credentials had an admission rate of 100 %.  This seems just a tad unconstitutional.  (Center for Individual Rights)
[no link]

END: University Michigan (3) Archives - News and Analysis 2000, 1999 (p. 3 of 4)

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