U.S. Researchers, Partner Institutions File Amicus Brief with U.S. Supreme Court Opposing Michigan’s Proposal 2 and Ban on Affirmative Action
Posted On October 30, 2013
The Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles in August submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court for Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action et al., in support of the Court of Appeals decision overturning the referendum banning affirmative action in Michigan.
The referendum, known as Proposal 2, was designed to overturn affirmative action plans at the University of Michigan and other universities in the state and to inscribe that prohibition into the state constitution. Under the policy incorporated in the referendum, universities in Michigan were allowed to consider virtually any factor in admitting students except for a student’s race.
The U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that Proposal 2 rigged the political process by selectively cementing prohibitions in the state constitution against only the consideration of race, which violated the principles of equal protection. Since minority groups did not have the millions of dollars needed to collect the signatures to launch a counter-referendum to change the state constitution, Proposal 2 would permanently harm communities of color in the state and specifically make it impossible for them to pursue change through the normal political process.
Given the enormous cost of overturning the referendum, Proposal 2 prevents educational leaders in Michigan from ever taking steps designed for educational equity and good preparation of students, which they believed to be essential to their mission, and which the Court had already endorsed as constitutionally permissible.
The Civil Rights Project, a non-partisan research center, in a news release said that it has submitted a brief summarizing the social science evidence showing the deep and lasting harm that would be caused by leaving the restriction in the state’s constitution.
The release is its entirety, as well as data on the ban’s effects on students in Michigan can be found here: