A Black and White Case: How Affirmative Action Survived Its Greatest Legal Challenge
Stohr, Bloomberg News's Supreme Court reporter, offers a balanced chronicle of the hotly contested, headline-making litigation brought to prevent the University of Michigan and its law school from using affirmative action in their admissions processes. The conservative Center for Individual Rights brought a constitutional test case by recruiting rejected white applicants (who had higher grades and test scores than admitted blacks) as plaintiffs and filing complaints in late 1997. Stohr follows the unfolding lawsuit step by step, from trial court to appeals court to the Supreme Court, which in 2003 rejected outright numerical advantages for minority applicants, but permitted the university to assemble a diverse class of students containing a "critical mass" of minorities. Throughout, Stohr pays attention to the participants—the plaintiffs, defendants, lawyers and judges—explaining their backgrounds and their stances on affirmative action, and sets out the issues in simple language. Stohr spotlights one fascinating feature of the case: the role of scores of amicus ("friend of the court") briefs filed on both sides. Amicus briefs from the military services, for instance, supported affirmative action, arguing that diversity at military academies is a matter of national security. As Stohr concludes, the Supreme Court assured that "[r]ace-based admissions would be around for at least another generation." 29 b&w photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.