WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether public universities may consider a student's race in admission decisions, an important national issue affecting higher education and affirmative action policies for minorities.The high court agreed to review cases involving the University of Michigan's law school and its undergraduate admissions, taking up a politically charged issue it last addressed 24 years ago in a landmark ruling.
Blacks and other minority groups have strongly defended affirmative action as a way to remedy past discrimination and to achieve student diversity while critics have called the programs an unconstitutional form of "reverse discrimination."
In its historic 1978 "Bakke v. Board of Regents" decision, a sharply divided Supreme Court struck down racial quotas in school admissions, but allowed race to be considered in deciding which students to accept. The justices will decide whether racial preferences still may be used or whether they violate the equal protection guarantee in the U.S. Constitution or the federal civil rights laws.
In rulings in recent years, the court's conservative majority has generally restricted the use of government affirmative action programs designed to help minorities. One case stemmed from a U.S. appeals court ruling that upheld the law school's use of race because it had a compelling interest in achieving a diverse student body.The university has argued that diversity enhances the education of all its students, that race is one of many factors in the admission process and that the number of minority students would plunge if race was not considered.
WHITE WOMAN DENIED ADMISSION TO LAW SCHOOL
Barbara Grutter, a white woman, appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming she was denied admission because minority students received preferential treatment. Grutter, who applied for admission in 1996 at age 43, said she had better grades and test scores than some minority applicants who got it. She has not enrolled in law school elsewhere and said she still wants to attend the law school.
"Although the case presents specific legal issues, at the most fundamental level the question it raises is whether our nation's principles of equal protection and non-discrimination mean the same thing for all races," Grutter's attorneys said in the appeal.
In the other case, a federal judge upheld the University of Michigan's use of race in undergraduate admissions. Attorneys for two white college applicants who were denied admission asked the Supreme Court to take the unusual step of reviewing the case before the appeals court ruled on it. Lawyers for Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher claimed they had been denied admission because of their race. The admission policy gives some weight to an applicant's race.
Their attorneys urged the Supreme Court to hear the case, saying it raised an issue of fundamental national public importance. However, the court refused to hear a separate appeal by lawyers for black and Hispanic students at the university who supported the affirmative action program.
Maureen Mahoney, a lawyer for the university, told the Supreme Court the 1978 decision should remain as precedent."Bakke has been relied upon by universities and public officials for decades, and has become an important part of our national culture," she said. Overruling it "would produce the immediate resegregation of many -- and perhaps most -- of this nation's finest and most selective institutions."
University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement, "We are urging the court not to turn back the clock on our ability to assemble a diverse student body." The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the cases next year, with a decision due by the end of June.
Vocabulary: Supreme Court, Race, Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination, Quota, Preferences, "Equal Protection" guarantee, Diverse/Diversity