Steps Forward and Back for Affirmative Action

The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 5, 2011, 2:21 pm
By Richard Kahlenberg

Last week, a federal appeals court panel struck down a 2006 Michigan voter initiative amending the state constitution to ban racial and ethnic affirmative action. By 2-1, a panel of Sixth Circuit judges found that the voter ban “unconstitutionally alters Michigan’s political structure by impermissibly burdening racial minorities.”
An effort to ban affirmative action by lobbying college-admissions committees would have been permissible because minority advocates could seek to overturn such decisions, the court said, but changing the state constitution violates the federal constitution because the only recourse for minority advocates is to alter the state constitution—a formidable task.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/steps-forward-and-back-for-affirmative-action-2/29773