Respondents challenged that the LSA has just such an interest in the educational benefits that result from having a racially and ethnically diverse student body and that its program is narrowly tailored to serve that interest. The court ruled for the respondents as to the LSA's current admissions guidelines and granted them summary judgment in that respect. The court also held that the LSA's admissions guidelines for 1995 through 1998 operated as the functional equivalent of a quota running afoul of Justice Powell's Bakke opinion, and thus granted petitioners summary judgment with respect to respondents' admissions programs for those years (Gratz v Bollinger, (02-516) 539 U.S. 244, 2003).
Affirmative action continues to be a topic of controversy in America's political and legal arenas. Bakke touched on the question, settling only the narrower issue of racial quotas in admissions to state supported schools and leaving later cases to test the propriety of affirmative action in other realms. In 2003 the Supreme Court reaffirmed the central beliefs in Justice Powell's opinion. In Gratz v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court upheld a flexible, race based admission program emphasizing diversity used by the University of Michigan's law school in Grutter v. Bollinger while striking down a quota based admission program used by Michigan's undergraduate school (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 2009).
In the case of Grutter v. Bollinger, the question was whether the University of Michigan Law School's use of racial preferences in student admissions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Courts conclusion was no. In an opinion delivered by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit the Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions...
Analysis: Hamacher was denied admission as a freshman applicant, but would have been admitted if he was a member of an underrepresented minority applicant. Hamacher was able and ready to apply as a transfer student, which gave him standing to seek prospective relief. Therefore, Hamacher had standing to bring the suit, both as a student who was denied admission as a freshman, and as a student seeking admission as a
The true spirit and meaning of the amendments, as we said in the Slaughter-House Cases (16 Wall. 36), cannot be understood without keeping in view the history of the times when they were adopted, and the general objects they plainly sought to accomplish. At the time when they were incorporated into the Constitution, it required little knowledge of human nature to anticipate that those who had long been regarded
With this ruling the Court upheld legality of affirmative action. In considering the reasoning behind the Court's upholding of the highly debated principle, the rationale was that to remedy past discrimination, a program that is race-based must be put into effect. Clearly, the Court was concerned with becoming intertwined in the daily administration of academic programs, and the same would have likely held true for the workplace. The Bakke case had
Moreover, the Court stated that affirmative action could not become a permanent policy and suggested that sometime in the future, when affirmative action would no longer be necessary to promote diversity, it would no longer be permissible for universities to employ affirmative action in their admissions process (See generally, Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003)). Given the incredible advancements in the struggle for equality over the past half-century, it
Perception of Racism and Colour Students Historically, ethnic minorities are at a disadvantage in comparison to their White counterparts in real society. Living in poverty also plays a role in being considered a disadvantaged individual. According to Boyle (2008) and the 2006 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, 25.3% Black/African-Americans, 21.5% Hispanics, and26.6% Native Americans and Native Alaskans live under the poverty line (Boyle 2008).In comparison, 10% of Whites and Asians
Affirmative Action The American Civil War ended an African holocaust that had lasted almost three centuries, devastating generations of human beings. It took most of the next century for decedents of the Africans enslaved in the American States to enjoy any of the actual freedoms and rights that were supposed to have been guaranteed to them after 1865. In many respects, contemporary American culture still features residual consequences of Slavery in
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