The University of Michigan Affirmative Action Cases: Racial Diversity in Higher Education (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
July 15, 2003 |
| Report Number |
RL31874 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Charles V. Dale, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The United States Supreme Court concluded its 2002-03 term with a pair of much anticipated
rulings in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases. In Grutter v. Bollinger a
5 to 4
majority of the Justices held that the University Law School had a "compelling" interest in the
"educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body," which justified its race-based efforts
to construct a "critical mass" of "underrepresented" minority students. But in a companion decision,
Gratz v. Bollinger , six Justices decided that the University's policy of awarding "racial
bonus points"
to minority applicants was not "narrowly tailored" enough to pass constitutional scrutiny. The
Michigan cases revisited constitutional terrain first surveyed by the High Court a quarter century
ago in University of California Regents v. Bakke . Unfortunately, the inability of the
Bakke Justices
to achieve any sort of consensus led in the intervening period to a circuit conflict over the
constitutionality of policies to achieve racial and ethnic diversity in higher education. It remained
for the Court in Michigan cases to resolve the doctrinal muddle left in Bakke 's wake.
