Military may play crucial role in case Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Military may play crucial role in case
Brief's arguments impress justices, Harvard prof says
By Margarita Bauz‡ / The Detroit News
Briefs filed by the military will play a pivotal role in the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action in university admissions, Harvard University law professor Christopher Edley said. Edley"They demonstrate quite pointedly how vitally important racial inclusion can be to the mission of an organization," said Edley, founding co-director of The Civil Rights Project at Harvard.
Justices hearing arguments Tuesday seemed impressed with the arguments of the military's friend of the court brief, which supported affirmative action polices, Edley said. "You have distinguished military leaders stating that it's a matter of national security," Edley said. "No judge should feel comfortable second-guessing that kind of judgment." The military point will be key to swaying Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whom he believes is the swing vote on the high court.
"O'Connor is temperamentally unsuited to sweeping radical judgments," he said. Edley saw no surprises Tuesday in court. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy appeared as hostile to U-M's case as expected. He said the U-M's undergraduate admissions system "is just a disguised quota," which the high court previously said is unconstitutional. The U-M's 150-point admission scale awarded 20 points to African-American applicants.
"There seemed to be a lot of questions raised about it, and the point system has the appearance of being overly mechanical," Edley said. Edley said O'Connor was the only justice who appeared undecided. "It's widely believed that Justice O'Connor is a pragmatist," he said. "While the point system may be uncomfortably mechanical, large selective schools like Michigan argue strongly that such schemes are a practical necessity becaused of the volume of applications."
You can reach Margarita Bauz‡ at (313) 222-2311 or mbauza@detnews.com.
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