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Health & Fitness

Supreme Court's decision sets higher standard on affirmative action

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – Some affirmative action opponents saw a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday as sidestepping the controversial issue, but one of the most fierce supporters of dismantling the program believes the decision is a positive step.

Jennifer Gratz, CEO of XIV Foundation, saw the court’s 7-1 decision in Fisher v. University of Texas as a strong indication the court is serious about putting race-based standards at universities on the path to extinction.

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“The Court once again confirmed that universities must be moving to end these policies and that they must first attempt to achieve diversity through race-neutral means,” Gratz said in a statement.

The white civil rights leader who founded the Michigan-based XIV Foundation, named after the 14th Amendment to “defend the principle of equal treatment and a colorblind society,” was the plaintiff in another high profile Supreme Court Case, Gratz v. Bollinger in which the high court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled against the University of Michigan and its affirmative action admissions policy a decade ago.

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In 1995, Gratz was denied admission to the university. She and another white student filed a lawsuit, charging Michigan’s admissions point scale to rank applicants, which gave bonus points to black, Hispanic and Native American applicants, was inherently unfair and threatened the plaintiffs right to “equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

While Gratz won a “personal victory,” University of Michigan law school student Barbara Grutter lost the landmark case Grutter v. Bollinger.

In writing the 5-4 majority opinion, then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor submitted that the University of Michigan Law School had a “compelling interest” in promoting class diversity through an admission policy that offered special consideration to minorities without quotas. O’Connor held that in 25 years, affirmative-action policies may prove unnecessary to promote racial diversity.

Gratz and affirmative action opponents everywhere were hoping the case of Abigail Fischer, a white student rejected by the University of Texas-Austin, would have taken direct aim at Grutter v. Bollinger.

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