Diversity in the Courts

Conservative courts are beginning to roll back affirmative methods to obtain diversity in higher education resulting in falling minority applications and admissions to schools in California and Texas--the states where the rulings have come down. (Please see accompanying graphics.)

A summary of the most significant rulings as well as pending appeals follows.

Bakke vs. UCLA Regents, Supreme Court, 1978

By the thread of a 5-4 decision hangs the ruling that affirmed the consideration of race as one of many factors in the admissions process. One of the two majority opinions emphasizes the positive effect diversity has on education. Harvard's efforts are also lauded as a model for other schools to follow.

Hopwood vs. Texas, Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 1996

The most recent federal decision on the issue, Hopwood struck down the "use of race as a factor in law school admissions." The Supreme the case. The law stands in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Proposition 209, California Nov. 1996.

A referendum in which California residents barred the state from "grant[ing] preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethinicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting," with the exception of jobs that have "bona fide" sex-based qualifications.

It comes on the heels of a decision by the University of California Board of Regents in July of 1995 that ended racial preferences in the university system.

Other State Cases

In Maryland, a scholarship program for black students was effectively eliminated by a 1994 Federal Appeals Court decision.

In Georgia, a group including alums of the state university system are suing in federal court to eliminate an affirmative action plan that they say discriminates without effectively remedying segregation at the university's campuses.