Backers and opponents of Mich. ban react to ruling

Associated Press

DETROIT

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday upholding the state’s ban on using race as a factor in college admissions comes as the University of Michigan has been taking steps to reach out to minorities and make them feel welcome on campus.

Blacks made up just 4.6 percent of undergraduate students last fall, a figure that has dropped since voters in 2006 said race couldn’t be used as a factor in the selection process. Nearly eight years later, the Supreme Court said the Michigan constitutional amendment will stand.

“To take away the rights of minorities is a shocking decision,” said George Washington, a Detroit lawyer who challenged the law. “With this, and the voting-rights decision last year, it’s clear the Supreme Court is undoing the rights gained by blacks and Latino people in the 1960s and 1970s.”

The university declined to make officials available for an interview. It released a statement from President Mary Sue Coleman, who said the school would use “every legal tool at our disposal to bring together a diverse student body.”

Asians make up 13 percent of undergraduates, well above the state’s Asian population, and Hispanics represent 4.4 percent.

Jennifer Gratz of Fort Myers, Fla., was involved in the campaign for the constitutional amendment and said the Supreme Court decision is a “great victory” for Michigan voters. She sued over the university’s racial preferences in 1997 after being rejected for admission.

Gratz, who is white, recently challenged a black Detroit high-school senior to a debate about affirmative action after Brooke Kimbrough appeared at a rally to complain about not getting accepted to the University of Michigan with a 3.6 grade-point average and a 23 on the ACT.

Attorney General Bill Schuette, who defended the amendment at the nation’s top court, praised the 6-2 decision.

Though the focus has been on the University of Michigan, the ban on affirmative action in college admissions applies to all public schools. Michigan State University, the largest school in the state, said blacks were 6 percent of undergraduates last fall.