University of Georgia to Appeal Ruling Against Affirmative Action University of Georgia to Appeal Ruling Against Affirmative Action
By Kenneth J. Cooper Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2000 ; Page A10
The University of Georgia yesterday announced plans to appeal a federal court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the school's policy of affirmative action in student admissions. U.S. District Judge Avant Edenfield ruled July 24 that the school's consideration of race in admitting a small percentage of undergraduates amounted to "naked racial balancing" that violates the Constitution. He ordered the flagship state university to admit three white women who had challenged the policy and to pay two of them $9,200 in compensation for higher expenses they faced attending other colleges last year.
A ruling by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals would affect schools in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, not just the university, which is in Athens. The U.S. Supreme Court has restricted affirmative action in other areas but has not ruled in recent years on a college admissions case. "The debate on the use of affirmative action in promoting diversity on the nation's college campuses for educational purposes has reached the critical point where a clear-cut decision must be reached," said Stephen R. Portch, chancellor of the state university system.
Michael F. Adams, the university's president, said the appeal would challenge Edenfield's rejection of a long-standing view that affirmative action in college admissions is permissible under a 1978 Supreme Court decision. In that case, Bakke v. Board of Regents, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. held in his decisive opinion that colleges could consider diversity as one factor in selecting students. But Edenfield ruled that Powell's opinion was not "controlling precedent."
The three plaintiffs--Jennifer Johnson, Aimee Bogrow and Molly Ann Beckenhauer--argued that they would have been admitted to the University of Georgia a year ago if some black students had not been awarded bonus points because of their race. About 10 percent to 15 percent of freshmen were admitted on the basis of a dozen factors, including race, while the rest were accepted solely on the basis of academic records, according to the university. Last year, Johnson enrolled at Mercer University, Bogrow at Georgia Perimeter College and Beckenhauer at Clemson University.
Their Atlanta lawyer, Lee A. Parks, could not be reached for comment on the university's decision to appeal. Theodore M. Shaw, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents black students in the case, argued the university's history of segregation before 1961 justified its admissions policy. "It's not only about diversity as a rationale, but it's about a history of discrimination in Georgia that has continuing effects today," Shaw said.
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