Oral Arguments In Grutter and Gratz

A fairly complete transcript of the Grutter (law school) case can be found here; the Gratz (undergraduate) transcript is here.

The Washington Post has an article about the pro-preference demonstrators outside the Court. “The majority of the activists were African American, but there were also significant numbers of whites and Hispanics.” No word about how many Jews, Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, or Guatemalans were in the crowd.

Joan Biskupic of USA Today has this report. Her take?

The justices’ remarks did not definitively indicate how they will rule this summer in a case that challenges admissions programs at the University of Michigan. But a majority of the nine justices cast doubt on the notion that it is time to end initiatives that are designed to give minorities a boost. Those justices appeared concerned that colleges, as well as the U.S. military academies, could return to an era of segregation if no consideration of applicants’ race were allowed.

At the same time, some justices seemed bothered by Michigan’s loosely defined goal of enrolling a “critical mass” of black, Hispanic and other minority students, and by the open-endedness of Michigan’s program. In the past, when the high court has allowed affirmative action, the approved programs have run only for fixed periods.

Linda Greenhouse’s summary in the New York Times is here. She concludes that “it appeared to many in the packed courtroom that affirmative action would survive its most important test in 25 years and that colleges and universities would still be able to take steps to ensure the presence of more than token numbers of minority students on their campuses.”

More hopeful responses from Kirk Kolbo, the attorney who argued on behalf of Barbara Grutter, and Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, which represented Jennifer Gratz, can be found on Power Line, which has been providing first rate coverage of this issue.

I was not there, and it is frequently a mistake to read too much into the justices’ questions. But from reading the transcripts I can’t say that I’m encouraged.

UPDATELegal Theorgy Blog has a post with a wealth of interesting resources not only on the argument but also on the broader, and deeper, issue of affirmative action. This blog repays frequent visits.

Say What? (1)

  1. nobody important April 2, 2003 at 8:47 am | | Reply

    Are we then to conclude that the demonstrations did not reflect the “diversity” of America? Perhaps we need some affirmative action to ensure a critical mass of underrepresented demonstrators? Were there any Asian-American demonstrators? Native American?

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