Spectators get creative in effort to hear U-M case Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Spectators get creative in effort to hear U-M case
By The Detroit News
WASHINGTON -- With only a dozen tickets to the Supreme Court hearing allotted to the University of Michigan, additional people who wanted to attend had to think of creative ways to get inside the august chambers for oral arguments. U-M regents and attorneys Andrea Fischer Newman and Laurence Deitch got inside by applying to be admitted to the Supreme Court bar, which would allow them in the future to argue a case before the nation's highest judicial body.
So did assistant U-M Law Dean Charlotte Johnson. The three got to be accompanied by three lawyers who were doing their swearing-in, as well as three guests, so nine extra people had tickets to the day's events, said Newman, senior vice president of government affairs for Northwest Airlines. "This was one way to get in," Newman said.
*** One of the major arguments made by U-M attorneys is that there are positive educational benefits to having a diverse student body. A study by Harvard professor Gary Orfield showed "overwhelming support" by U-M and Harvard students for maintaining admissions policies that get racially diverse students, attorney Maureen Mahoney said during oral arguments in the law school case. "Sure, they're in already," retorted Justice Antonin Scalia. "The people you want to talk to are the high school seniors ... who have seen people visibly less qualified than they are get into prestigious institutions where they are rejected. "If you think that is not creating resentment, you are just wrong."
**** In one of the humorous moments of oral arguments, Chief Justice William Rehnquist seemingly inadvertently referred to U-M's admissions policies as "quotas," to which Mahoney politely replied, "They're not quotas, Your Honor." Mahoney was speaking back to her former boss, whom she clerked for after law school.
"The critical mass?" he corrected himself. "We know aspirations," Mahoney replied. And Rehnquist left it at that. *** During the three days University of Michigan student Justin Wilson camped outside the Supreme Court, there was lots of time to discuss how to pass the time. One suggestion: A pro-affirmative action/anti-affirmative action football game on the court lawn. Wilson and his three colleagues from the conservative Michigan Review student newspaper would be on one side, and reporters from The Michigan Daily student newspaper would play on the other. "Rehnquist will come out and say, `Get off the lawn you little brats," Wilson said. Kickoff never happened.
**** On Monday afternoon, Barbara Grutter, the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Law school, walked past the group camped outside the courtroom hoping for seats to the hearing in her case. "Line for Grutter starts here!," said an orange sign taped to a tree. "Sign in." "I guess I should sign it," she said. And so she did. *** While in Washington, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman was the focus of media attention, speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast and in numerous one-on-one interviews.
She said she was proud to be the spokeswoman for higher education's fight to preserve affirmative action. "If this were some terrible scandal, I would feel different," she said. Two months ago, U-M was in the spotlight as U-M officials met with the NCAA committee reviewing U-M's basketball program. "This is better than the infractions committee," Coleman said. Detroit News staff writers Jodi S. Cohen and Lisa Zagaroli contributed to this report.
News and Announcements | AAD Home Page