Not like riding a bicycle
In November, the people of Michigan amended the state constitution to prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of race or gender in the operation of public employment, publlc education, and public contracting within the state. The effective date was to be December 23, 2006. However, shortly before that date a federal district court issued an injunction preventing the amendment from going into effect with respect to Michigan's state universities until July 1, 2007.
Now the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the district court's ruling and lifted the injunction. As a result, the state’s universities must abandon racial preferences immediately.
Among the arguments presented in favor of pushing back the effective date of the constitutional amendment were the alleged difficulty of changing admissions policy in mid-cycle and alleged uncertainty about what the language of the amendment means. The federal appeals court rejected these arguments as not raising federal grounds for suspending the law.
As addicted to racial preferences as Michigan may be, I would have thought that judging all applicants the same way regardless of their race would be a simple matter -- something any competent admissions officer could do instantly. It should be especially easy for the University of Michigan. which used a straightforward point system to admit undergraduates (but added points for members of racial minorities) until Sandra Day O'Connor ruled that if it wanted to discriminate on the basis of race, it had to do so more creatively.
In the unlikely event that Michigan's admissions offices have forgotten how to be color-blind, I'm not sure it's in their interest to admit it.
Via NRO's Bench Memos.
