University
of Michigan law school's racial policy upheld
By Mike Householder
The Associated Press
May 15, 2002
DETROIT -- In a closely watched case that could ultimately go to the U.S. Supreme Court, a sharply divided federal appeals court yesterday upheld the use of race in admissions at the University of Michigan law school. "We find that the law school has a compelling state interest in achieving a diverse student body," the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 5-4 decision, reversing a lower-court ruling.
The university had argued that diversity enhances the education of all its students. It said it considers race as one of a number of factors, including an applicant's academic record and economic status. Around the country, federal appeals courts have reached conflicting decisions in recent years on affirmative action in admissions.
In 1996, a federal appeals-court ruling led the University of Texas law school to stop considering race in admissions. Other appeals courts have upheld University of Washington Law School's race-conscious admissions policy (abandoned after Initiative 200 banned racial preferences) and rejected a policy at the University of Georgia.
The Michigan case could let the Supreme Court settle the dispute and revisit a 1978 case that banned racial quotas but allowed consideration of race in college admissions. In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Danny Boggs called Michigan's policy "a straightforward instance of racial discrimination by a state institution."
The Michigan ruling sprang from two lawsuits brought by white students who were rejected by the university. They contended that Michigan's law-school and undergraduate admissions policies discriminate against whites in favor of less-qualified minorities. A federal judge in Detroit upheld the use of race in undergraduate admissions.
But another federal judge, Bernard Friedman, struck it down in law-school admissions,
declaring: "The focus must be upon the merit of individual applicants, not upon
characteristics of racial groups." The appeals court said yesterday it would
issue a ruling later in the undergraduate case. The plaintiffs' lawyers said
they will take their case to the Supreme Court.
"While UM may have eked out a 5-4 decision, the opinions themselves suggest little legal support for racially segregated admissions policies. I am confident the Supreme Court will correct this error," said Terence Pell, chief executive of the Center for Individual Rights, an organization that sued on behalf of the white students.
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