The effort to simply achieve a certain racial mix, he called racial discrimination for its own sake, which he said the Constitution clearly forbids. Since the Bakke ruling, affirmative action has been narrowed. A federal court ruled the University of Texas could not use it to achieve diversity at its law school. And a California ballot measure halted state affirmative action. The University of Michigan is preparing to defend itself this fall against a legal challenge that, if the school loses, could undermine affirmative-action programs around the country.
Federal lawsuits accuse the university of rejecting white applicants because of their race.
The plaintiffs hope to force the school to ignore race when making admission decisions, a fight that could wind up before the Supreme Court. She thought it would pay off with admission to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In April 1995, she found out she was wrong. And sue she did. So did some other rejected white applicants, all of them asking federal judges to force the University of Michigan to change its affirmative action policy at both its main undergraduate college and its law school.