November 16, 2012
Court Strike’s Down Michigan’s Ban on Using Race in College Admissions
A Michigan appeals court invalidated a ballot measure that prohibited colleges and universities there from considering race in admissions, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
“We conclude that [the measure] targets a program that inures to the benefit of the minority and reorders the political process in Michigan in a way that places special burdens on racial minorities,†Judge R. Guy Cole said in the majority opinion.
The case did not consider whether the use of race in admissions was constitutional, but only whether the state’s ban violated the rights of applicants of color.
The decision comes as colleges across the nation await the Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of  University of Texas’s admission process. At Texas, the school factors race into admissions along with other factors.