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Law
Center Active in Affirmative Action Appeal to Supreme Court |
| Law
Center students and faculty took leading roles in advocating affirmative
action in a landmark appeal argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in April
and decided on June 23.The appeal involved two lawsuits, Gratz
v. Bollinger and
Grutter
v. Bollinger,
that challenged the policy in both undergraduate and law school admissions,
respectively, at the University of Michigan. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing the opinion for the majority of the court, cited an amicus brief filed by Law Center Dean Judy Areen and law school deans at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, New York University, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Yale University.This brief, which supported the University of Michigan Law School admissions policy, was written by Law Center Professor Neal Katyal and two other attorneys acting as counsel of record. It argued in part that for law schools especially, diversity is crucial to prepare lawyers in “an increasingly multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural world.” O’Connor cited the brief’s historical overview of the implementation of affirmative action in university admissions since Justice Powell’s opinion in the 1978 Regents of California v. Bakke case, a decision, according to the brief, that has provided universities with a model for race-conscious admissions policies for the past 25 years. A group of Law Center students also filed an amicus brief arguing for the use of race as “one of many factors” in admissions decisions.Third-year student David Fauvre led the group in drafting the brief, obtaining the signatures of 13,922 law students nationwide, and filing it with the court. Professor Julie O’Sullivan provided editorial and legal guidance. To cap the Law Center’s activities in this area, more than a dozen student groups representing a range of views hosted a panel of six speakers on March 31 to discuss “Bollinger and the Future of Affirmative Action.” Panelists included Roger Clegg, former deputy attorney general in the Reagan and Bush administrations; Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Clarence Page; Rev. Jesse Jackson; and Reid Cox, assistant general counsel for the Center for Individual Freedom. Jackson said affirmative action may be needed so long as “there are more black men in prison than in college,” while Cox argued for abandoning the policy because it is “divisive.” The Bollinger appeals captured national interest.An estimated 50,000 marchers from across the country rallied in Washington the morning of the Supreme Court argument. In addition to the amicus briefs filed by the Law Center dean and students, nearly 100 others were submitted by numerous states, universities, and Fortune 500 companies. For the second time in history – the first was Bush v. Gore in 2000 – the Court released an audio recording of the oral argument. After the Court issued its opinion in June, the Law Center’s Supreme Court Institute held a briefing on the decisions’ implications. Speaking at the June 27 briefing were Law Center Professors Charles Abernathy and Mark Tushnet and Maureen E. Mahoney, the attorney for the University of Michigan Law School and a partner in the firm of Latham & Watkins  |