The Hindu : U.S. Supreme Court limits scope of affirmative action

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003

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International

U.S. Supreme Court limits scope of affirmative action

WASHINGTON JUNE 23. In two split decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that minority applicants may be given an edge when applying for admissions to universities, but limited how much a factor race can play in the selection of students.

The court struck down a point system used by the University of Michigan, but did not go as far as opponents of affirmative action had wanted.

The court approved a separate programme used at the University of Michigan Law School that gives race less prominence in the admissions decision-making process.

The court was divided in both cases. It upheld the Law School programme that sought a ``critical mass'' of minorities by a 5-4 vote, with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor siding with the court's more liberal Justices to decide the case.

The court split 6-3 in finding the undergraduate programme unconstitutional. The Chief Justice, William H. Rehnquist, wrote the majority opinion in the undergraduate case, joined by Justices O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer.

Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented. Michigan's undergraduate admissions structure is tantamount to a quota, the majority in that case concluded. While it set no fixed target for the number of minority students who should get in, the point-based evaluation system gave minority applicants a 20-point boost. — AP

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