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Originally posted by ncsan22:
Doreking, many might agree with you that that violates Equal Protection but the Supreme Court does not. Look up the Grutter case involving Michigan's Law School admission policies - race can be a factor as long as it is but one component of an individualized assessment of each applicant. I was unaware that this had been extended beyond higher education, but it has definitely been allowed in some contexts.

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As you can imagine, we talked a bit about Grutter in one of my classes in the higher ed program here. We heard from at least one guy (whose name escapes me) who i think was involved in the litigation, although i forget if he works in the GC's office or elsewhere in the university. It helped U-M's case quite a bit that they argued on the basis of educational outcomes and pretty much left aside questions of equity. There's a good deal of research showing that racial and ethnic diversity leads to better educational outcomes for all students. Therefore, you don't need to believe a university has a right to give a helping hand to the disadvantaged to accept affirmative action; you just have to believe that a university has a right to do what leads to the best outcomes for its students.

This post was edited on 4/26 10:57 PM by PhilipVU94