Michigan responds on affirmative action [UPDATED]
on Jan 18, 2007 at 2:09 pm
UPDATE, Thursday a.m. The three state universities involved in this controversy joined the state’s governor on Wednesday in asking permission to resume the use of race and gender in their admissions practices during the current academic year [see their filing here]. The institutions contended that they recently abandoned the use of those factors only because they had no choice, but argued that they continue to believe that immediate enforcement of the state ban on such admissions practices will prevent them “from exercising their academic freedom right to admit the class they thought best suited their acdemic goals.”
State officials in Michigan took opposing positions Wednesday in the Supreme Court on whether three state universities should be allowed to continue during the current academic year to use race and gender as factors in their admissions programs. The request in 06A678 was filed not by the universities themselves, but by a coalition of groups as well as prospective students who favor some use of race in college entry policies.
The plea is pending before Justice John Paul Stevens as Circuit Justice for the Sixth Circuit, where the dispute is being played out in lower federal courts and within the state government. A federal judge in Detroit had given the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University temporary permission to complete their current admissions cycles using policies that give some preference based on race and gender. That order, however, was stayed by the Sixth Circuit Court, and the rights groups then took their plea to Stevens.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm argued, in her response, that the better option at this point would be to allow the universities to proceed as they had been even though each institution has since modified its programs to avoid using race and gender because they thought the issue could not be resolved quickly enough [see the document here]. State Attorney General Michael A. Cox, however, argued that the Circuit Court’s stay should remain in place [see his response here]. There is no chance, Cox contended, that the supporters of the admissions programs can win in a challenge to Michigan’s voter-approved Proposal 2 to end such uses of race and gender in state government programs.
A young white man who is applying for admission to the University of Michigan Law School, Eric Russell, who opposes race and gender preferences, also told Justice Stevens on Wednesday that the Circuit Court’s stay should stand [his filing is available here]. The groups seeking to lift it, the Russell response said, are not even the ones who won a temporary order in District Court, and the Court has no jurisdiction to hear their plea now.
Justice Stevens has not yet indicated whether he will act alone on the dispute, or turn it over to the full Court. Some action is expected promptly, however.
