Admissions U-M could be definitive affirmative
action case Admissions U-M could be definitive affirmative
action case
June 27, 2001
With every rejection of an affirmative action challenge brought before it, the U.S. Supreme Court puts an even brighter spotlight on twin cases from the University of Michigan. On Monday, the high court refused to hear the state of Texas' appeal of a 1996 ruling barring affirmative action at its public universities, which came out of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Just a month ago, justices declined to hear an appeal of a 9th Circuit decision upholding the University of Washington Law School's admissions policy. So many affirmative action cases are making their way into the federal courts that it's clear people are demanding a clarification of the Supreme Court's 1978 Bakke decision, which provided the legal rationale for affirmative action in higher education.
By passing on opportunities to weigh in, the justices appear to be looking for the ideal case on which to make a definitive statement. Enter Michigan. U-M has two cases pending before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Over the past year, different federal judges have ruled that the university's undergraduate use of affirmative action is constitutional, but its law school admissions policy is not.
Two U.S. District Court judges rendering contradictory rulings in essentially the same case makes the U-M situation unique. The Supreme Court should feel compelled to step in and reaffirm once and for all the validity of the Bakke decision. When the first lawsuit was filed against the University of Michigan four years ago, many people predicted that it would be a seminal case.
Now that the Supreme Court has gotten other cases out of its way, the odds are even greater that the Ann Arbor university will be the basis of a landmark decision.
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