Bush said the University of Michigan (UM) law and undergraduate schools’ admission policies "amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students based solely on their race."

The policies "which award students a significant number of extra points based solely on their race and establish numerical targets for incoming minority students, are unconstitutional," he said. Affirmative action quotas "create another wrong, and thus perpetuate our divisions," he argued.

The administration is siding with two lawsuits against the University of Michigan law school and the undergraduate College of Literature, Science and the Arts. The lawsuits will be heard together by the Supreme Court during its spring session and a ruling is expected later this year.

The lawsuits were filed in 1997 on behalf of three students by the Center for Individual Rights (CIR). CIR lawyers claim that "minority" students with lower qualifications were accepted in place of their white clients.

CIR successfully challenged the University of Texas Law School’s affirmative action admissions policies in 1996.

The lawsuits against the University of Michigan resulted in opposing opinions in lower courts over the past two years as opponents have sought to deal further blows to affirmation action.

The UM undergraduate college uses a system of 150 points to rate students seeking admission. Points are awarded for grade-point average and scores on college entrance exams. In addition, points are given to students in a variety of other categories: between 1 and 4 "legacy" points for relatives of alumni, 10–16 points for Michigan residents, and 20 points for being from an oppressed nationality or minority. The lawsuits and the Bush brief oppose the latter category.

Between 1997, when the lawsuits were filed, to 2001, enrollment of Blacks, Latinos, and Asians at the University of Michigan has remained steady at 26 percent. This year’s freshman class, excluding international students, is 11.8 percent Asian, 8.9 percent Black, and 6.1 percent Latino.  
 
‘No quotas or numerical targets’
"We do not have, and have never had, quotas or numerical targets in either the undergraduate or Law School admissions programs," insisted UM president Mary Sue Coleman in a January 15 statement defending the admissions policy.

"The court will need to decide whether these programs will continue to be upheld under the Bakke principles," said University of Michigan general counsel Marvin Krislov.

He was referring to the 1978 Supreme Court ruling in the Bakke case, which declared that affirmative action quotas are unconstitutional. The court also held that "the goal of achieving a diverse student body is sufficiently compelling to justify consideration of race...under some circumstances."

In his brief, Bush argued in favor of what he called "race-neutral" alternatives to affirmative action with quotas. He pointed to Texas, where students graduating in the top 10 percent of all high schools in the state, including largely Black schools, are supposedly guaranteed a spot in a state university. The system was instituted after a court struck down the affirmative action plan at the University of Texas. Such "percentage plans rely on segregated high schools to produce racial diversity in colleges," the Washington Post noted.

Some opponents of affirmative action complained that the Bush administration’s brief does not go far enough because it failed to ask the court to declare the consideration of race as unconstitutional.

The Bush administration’s stand does not address the "central issue of whether ethnic or racial discrimination can be justified," said Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a right-wing think tank in Sterling, Virginia. "But it’s better than nothing and makes more likely that the court will hold that such discrimination cannot be justified."

"We are not disappointed with the president’s briefs," said Terry Pell, chief executive officer of the Center for Individual Rights.

"His arguments will lead to the same results in the near term."

Ted Shaw, associate director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told the press Bush’s stance is a hammer in a velvet glove. "He did not take a hard-line stance in opposition to affirmative action but he is advocating a standard that makes it impossible for colleges and universities to practice race-conscious admissions," Shaw said.

The president’s decision to file briefs backing the challenges to the University of Michigan’s admissions policy has caused some divisions among administration representatives. Secretary of State Colin Powell stated publicly January 19 that he disagreed with the president’s position and expressed support for the UM admissions policies.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said she backed the president’s briefs. She added that she personally had benefited from affirmative action programs during her tenure at Stanford University. "It is important to take race into consideration if you must, if race-neutral means do not work," Rice stated. "Race is a factor in our society."
 
 
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