Tuesday f r 4 a ~ i ©2003 The Michigan Daily bAi Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIV, No. 142 One hundred twelve years of editoralfreedom www.michgandaly.com Supreme Court upholds a irmative action, rects point s By Jeremy Berkowitz The two judgments, which gave the Univer- and Tomislav Ladika sity guidelines for how race can be used in its Daily StaffReporters admissions systems, were the culmination of the six-year legal battle between the University WASHINGTON - Considering a college and the rejected white applicants who sued it. applicant's race is constitutional, the Supreme The court accepted the University's argu- Court ruled in a 5-4 decision yesterday. ment that the need for a diverse student But in a 6-3 vote, it struck down the Col- body justified affirmative action. lege of Literature, Science and the Arts' The scene outside the courtroom was policy of granting points for race. reminiscent of the one two months ago, 'U' wins in Law School decision By Jeremy Berkowitz Daily Staff Reporter_ when oral arguments were heard in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. Civil rights leaders and University officials held impromptu press conferences expressing their delight. University students and alumni liv- ing in Washington D. C. for the summer gathered to find outabout the decision and some waited in long lines to obtain copies of the opinions. "This is a victory today," said Theodore Shaw, associate director-counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "This leaves the doors of opportunity for minority students." The decision was fortunate, given the current conservative makeup of the court, he said. Seven of the nine justices received their appointments from Republican presidents. Writing for the majority in the Law School case, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the need for diversity iustifies using race as an WASHINGTON - The lingering presence of former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell could be felt yes- terday morning as his protege, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, read the deci- sion upholding the University's Law School admissions policies in Grutter v. Bollinger. In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld the Law School's policies that consider race as one of many admissions factors in an individual- ized review process without giving race a specific point value. Powell, like O'Connor today, was known for his pragmatic and centrist views during his 15-year tenure on the court. He wrote in his landmark sole opinion in the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke that race could be used strictly as a "plus factor" in college admissions. Cedric Deleon and oth Powell's decision acted as precedent struck down the LSA for the court's latest decision. "It's very similar to Bakke, Univer- sity of Texas law Prof. Douglas Lay- cock said. "It basically reaffirms S tU C Bakke. ... People won't be able to claim that there have been more deci-1 sions that outdate it." Some justices who supported affir- mative action in other settings sid USC could be used to remedy past discrimi- nation, hence drawing more con- tentious arguments from conservatives. By James Koivunen But O'Connor, along with Justices and Samantha Woll David Souter, Stephen Breyer, John Daily Staff Reporters Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Gins- burg, stressed with careful language Yesterday's mut that those past decisions by the court Supreme Court deci may not apply in the same way to high- the end and the be er education institutions. student marches, pei "It is true that some language in debates surrounding those opinions might be read to issue of affirmative suggest remedying past discrimina- versity's admissions tion is the only permissible justifi- The split decis 'cation for race-based governmental array of student be action," O'Connor wrote. pus with strong s "But we have never held that the sides of this issue - only governmental use of race that can undecided and con survive strict scrutiny is remedying Supreme Court's de past discrimination. Nor, since Bakke, The key compone have we directly addressed the use of split decision was race in the context of public higher both the College o education. Today, we hold that the Law ence and the Arts School has a compelling interest in cases race was cot attaining a diverse student body." legitimate factor in O'Connor upheld Powell's 25- policies. Many Uni year-old assertion that diversity is a regardless of their s versity's current ad See LAW SCHOOL, Page 2 support the idea tha sions factor, thus rejecting the claims by the plaintiffs that race should never be lered as an admissions factor. cause universities, and in particular hools, represent the training ground large number of the nation's leaders :. .th to leadership must be visibly open ented and qualified individuals of race and ethnicity," her opinion states: See COURT, Page T LSA told to alter numeric system By Tomislav Ladika Daily Staff Reporter Although the racial plus factor used by the College of Literature, Sciencea and the Arts' admissions policy brings an underrepresented minority appli- cant with a 3.0 grade point average to the level of a white candidate with a 4.0 GPA, the U.S. Supreme Court did not rule that granting too many points for race was the LSA's primary consti- tutional fault. Instead, the court found that the LSA policy - which grants 20 points for race out of a possible 150 - is unconstitutional because it grants the same number of points to each underrepresented minority, without considering the applicant's contribution to diversity individually. Throughout the court's majority opinion in the LSA case, Cheif Justice William Rehnquist referred to the 1978 Regents of the University of Cafornia v. Bakke decision, and Justice Lewis Powell's opinion in the case, as prece- dent. In that ruling - the court's last statement on race-conscious admis, sions before yesterday's ruling - the court banned racial quotas, but Powell wrote that race could be used as one of many admissions factors. Such racial plus factors could only be justified in the most limited circum- stances, Powell wrote. To pass the court's strict scrutiny of their policies, schools had to prove that their goal in using race was a compelling state inter- est and that their policies were narrow- ly tailored to meet that need. While the court accepted the Univer- sity's rationale that the need for a diverse academic environment is such a state interest, a majority of the jus- tices concluded that the LSA policy was not narrowly tailored. The LSA policy automatically grants each underrepresented minority a set amount of points just because of their race, the Rehnquist opinion states. "The admissions program Justice Powell described did not contemplate that any single characteristic automati- cally ensured a specific and identifi- able contribution to a university's diversity," Rehnquist wrote. In the ruling, the court did not directly declare point systems uncon- stitutional. The LSA policy was over- turned because it does not consider how much each individual applicant contributes to diversity, both through See LSA, Page 7 her members of Students Supporting Affirmative Action celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court rulings yesterday during a rally on the Diag. The court admissions system but upheld the Law School system, affirming that race can be considered in college admissions. lendddts dividedover methods, Sachieve diverse campus is a compelling state interest. Inside: The campus right and left weigh in on the court's decisions. Page 20. Mathematics doctoral candidate ch awaited U.S. sion marked both ginning of many titions, rallies and the controversial action in the Uni- policies. ion reflects the iefs across cam- upport for both - and many still fused about the cision. ent of the court's the fact that in f Literature, Sci- and Law School nsidered to be a their admissions iversity students, tance on the Uni- missions system at racial diversity Jared Maruskin agreed that diversity there aren't really that many African is important and does have an effect-Americans or minorities in general in on students, even on those who are the law 'schools." unaware of it. LSA junior Danny Huerta cited "I've had friends who have said that existing social imperfections as diversity doesn't really affect me, that rationale enough for affirmative people still stay in their action. groups," Maruskin said. SSIONS "At a school like this "But it's very important you want to have diver- even if we just see peo- sity, and it happens that ple from all sorts of in today's world under- cultures and back- represented minorities grounds represented don't have their chance here," he continued. necessarily because "It does have an they can't pay for SAT effect, even though classes or they don't go some people might not to such great schools," be conscious of that he said. effect," Maruskin said. Kelly Jones, a first- Engineering senior Kavon Stewart year graduate student in the School also agreed with the court's ruling on of Education, agreed that certain the importance of diversity. races are specifically disadvantaged "I'm happy they decided to consid- and said that "because of the er race as an issue in the law schools, inequity that there is for certain because when you think about it, groups of people, there has to be some way to make up for that." However, Jones and felLtw. stu- dents, while understanding thtsneed for current race-conscious policies, have concerns about instituting a per- manent affirmative action policy. "I believe it needs to start at the grade school and high school levels and that we shouldn't have to do this at college, but right now we need to," she added.- While many agree that racial diversity is an important concern for the University, economic diver- sity is also an important concern that many feel is overlooked. - "I think that seeking diversity should be a factor in admissions, and racial diversity is certainly a kind of diversity. I'd also like to see economic diversity," said Rackham student Sarah Nuss-Warren. LSA junior Sam Botsford said that although he supports affirmative See STUDENTS, Page 20 "Today, we hold that the Law School "Clearly, the LSA' system does not ofer has a compellig interest in attaiig a appliants the individualizedselection diverse student ody." process described in Harvard's example." -Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -Chief Justice William Rehnquist IN THEIR OWN WORDS b Full text of the Supreme Court's opinions Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the majority of the court, but every justice contributed to the barrage of concurring and dissenting opinions handed down yesterday. Pages 9-19. ADMINISTRATION Declaring victory After years of legal battles, University administrators claim victory - and say it won't be hard to reformulate undergraduate admissions. Page 2. 0i OPINION In-depth analysis A variety of writers and contributors share their feelings on yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Pages 4,5.