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Full-Text Articles in Law
How The Supreme Court Can Improve Educational Opportunities For African American And Hispanic Students By Ruling Against Harvard College’S Use Of Race Data, Genevieve Kelly
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard has not only exposed ways in which Harvard College’s admissions office unfairly assesses Asian American applicants, but it has also revealed that Harvard’s fixation on race per se can disadvantage the very African American and Hispanic students best positioned to bring instructive and underrepresented perspectives to the college. The facts show that Harvard’s “tips” and “one-pager” system values African American and Hispanic students for their ability to boost Harvard’s racial profile more than for their actual experiences confronting racial discrimination. This Comment explains how, by ruling against Harvard (and without overruling Grutter or Fisher …
Place, Not Race: Affirmative Action And The Geography Of Educational Opportunity, Sheryll Cashin
Place, Not Race: Affirmative Action And The Geography Of Educational Opportunity, Sheryll Cashin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Ultimately, I argue that one important response to the demise of race-based affirmative action should be to incorporate the experience of segregation into diversity strategies. A college applicant who has thrived despite exposure to poverty in his school or neighborhood deserves special consideration. Those blessed to come of age in poverty-free havens do not. I conclude that use of place, rather than race, in diversity programming will better approximate the structural disadvantages many children of color actually endure, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. While I propose substituting …
The Quixotic Search For Race-Neutral Alternatives, Michael E. Rosman
The Quixotic Search For Race-Neutral Alternatives, Michael E. Rosman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Supreme Court has stated that the narrow-tailoring inquiry of the Equal Protection Clause’s strict scrutiny analysis of racially disparate treatment by state actors requires courts to consider whether the defendant seriously considered race-neutral alternatives before adopting the race-conscious program at issue. This article briefly examines what that means in the context of race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities. Part I sets forth the basic concepts that the Supreme Court uses to analyze race-conscious decision-making by governmental actors and describes the role of “race-neutral alternatives” in that scheme. Part II examines the nature of “race-neutral alternatives” and identifies its …
Thinking Hard About 'Race-Neutral' Admissions, Richard H. Sander, Aaron Danielson
Thinking Hard About 'Race-Neutral' Admissions, Richard H. Sander, Aaron Danielson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Our exploration is organized as follows. In Part I, we sympathetically consider the very difficult dilemmas facing higher education leaders. Understanding the often irreconcilable pressures that constrain university administrators is essential if we are to envision the plausible policies they might undertake. In Part II, we draw on a range of data to illustrate some of the “properties” of admissions systems and, in particular, the ways in which race, SES, and academic preparation interact dynamically both within individual schools and across the educational spectrum. Partly because the questions we examine here have been so little studied, ideal data does not …
The 'Compelling Government Interest' In School Diversity: Rebuilding The Case For An Affirmative Government Role, Philip Tegeler
The 'Compelling Government Interest' In School Diversity: Rebuilding The Case For An Affirmative Government Role, Philip Tegeler
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
How far does Justice Kennedy’s “moral and ethical obligation” to avoid racial isolation extend? Does the obligation flow primarily from Supreme Court case law, does it derive from an evolving consensus in the social sciences, or does it also have a statutory basis in Title VI and other federal law? In addition to its value as a justification for non-individualized, race-conscious remedial efforts by state and local governments, does the compelling interest identified in Parents Involved also suggest an affirmative duty on the part of the federal government? And if so, how far does this affirmative duty extend, and how …
Fisher V. Texas: The Limits Of Exhaustion And The Future Of Race-Conscious University Admissions, John A. Powell, Stephen Menendian
Fisher V. Texas: The Limits Of Exhaustion And The Future Of Race-Conscious University Admissions, John A. Powell, Stephen Menendian
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article investigates the potential ramifications of Fisher v. Texas and the future of race-conscious university admissions. Although one cannot predict the ultimate significance of the Fisher decision, its brief and pregnant statements of law portends an increasingly perilous course for traditional affirmative action programs. Part I explores the opinions filed in Fisher, with a particular emphasis on Justice Kennedy’s opinion on behalf of the Court. We focus on the ways in which the Fisher decision departs from precedent, proscribes new limits on the use of race in university admissions, and tightens requirements for narrow tailoring. Part II investigates the …
The Promise Of Grutter: Diverse Interactions At The University Of Michigan Law School, Meera E. Deo
The Promise Of Grutter: Diverse Interactions At The University Of Michigan Law School, Meera E. Deo
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
In Grutter v. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School on the grounds of educational diversity. Yet the Court's assumption that admitting diverse students into law school would result in improved race relations, livelier classroom conversations, and better professional outcomes for students has never been empirically tested. This Article relies on survey and focus group data collected at the University of Michigan Lav School campus itself in March 2010 to examine not only whether, but how diversity affects learning. The data indicate both that there are sufficient numbers of students of color …
Education And Labor Relations: Asian Americans And Blacks As Pawns In The Furtherance Of White Hegemony, Xiaofeng Stephanie Da
Education And Labor Relations: Asian Americans And Blacks As Pawns In The Furtherance Of White Hegemony, Xiaofeng Stephanie Da
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Asian Americans and Blacks have been, and continue to be, racialized relative to each other in our society. Asian Americans and Blacks have come to occupy marginalized positions as the polarized ends on the economic spectrums of education and labor relations, with an expanding "Whiteness" as the filler in the middle as Whites manipulate the differing interests of both subordinated groups to align with White (the dominant group's) interests. Although Whites purport to champion the interests of one subordinate group over the other, in reality the racialization of Asian Americans and Blacks in our country is rooted in the preservation …
Without Color Of Law: The Losing Race Against Colorblindness In Michigan, Khaled Ali Beydoun
Without Color Of Law: The Losing Race Against Colorblindness In Michigan, Khaled Ali Beydoun
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Essay examines affirmative action, while discussing its fall in California, Washington State, and ultimately Michigan.
The Diversity Rationale: Unprovable, Uncompelling, Brian N. Lizotte
The Diversity Rationale: Unprovable, Uncompelling, Brian N. Lizotte
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Student body diversity-and the purported educational benefits diversity bestows- is the final Supreme Court-endorsed justification for affirmative action by public universities. Are the benefits of diversity indeed "substantial," as the Grutter majority claimed? The author analyzes the social scientific research upon which the Court relied in articulating the diversity interest. By critiquing its theory and methodology, the author shows how the research fails to prove educational benefits; and by considering the logic underlying social science generally, he shows how the causal relationship is, technically, not provable. The author questions, then, how the diversity interest can possibly be compelling.
A History Of Hollow Promises: How Choice Juisprudence Fails To Achieve Educational Equality, Anita F. Hill
A History Of Hollow Promises: How Choice Juisprudence Fails To Achieve Educational Equality, Anita F. Hill
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article combines analysis of case law at state and federal levels as well as federal educational policy in an effort to formulate a framework for addressing educational inequalities, of which the achievement gap is only one result. As individual rights concepts control the discourse of equal educational opportunity, community injury continues to be ignored. Because educational policy aimed at ending educational inequities is governed by equal protection analysis and guided by court decisions, limitations in legal opinions drive such policies. The lack of attention to community harm in law and educational policy limits the ability of education legal reforms …
Fair And Facially Neutral Higher Educational Admissions Through Disparate Impact Analysis, Michael G. Perez
Fair And Facially Neutral Higher Educational Admissions Through Disparate Impact Analysis, Michael G. Perez
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Part I of this Note proposes both remedial and instrumental justifications for applying disparate impact scrutiny to admissions policies. This Part argues that disparate impact analysis should be applied to higher education as a remedy for the disadvantage minority applicants face as a result of historic and ongoing intentional discrimination and that schools are culpable for unnecessarily utilizing admissions criteria that have this discriminatory effect. The result of applying disparate impact analysis will be admissions policies that produce diverse student bodies while remaining facially neutral with regard to race. Part II proposes that a necessity standard, unique to the higher …
Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn In The Modern Classroom, Sharon E. Rush
Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn In The Modern Classroom, Sharon E. Rush
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this article, I explore emotional segregation and how it functions in the context of Huckleberry Finn for both personal and academic reasons. Recently, I read Huckleberry Finn because it had been assigned to my daughter's middle school class. I was concerned for her welfare because she is Black and worried how the book would affect her. To understand her reactions, I had to understand the controversy surrounding the book, particularly as a White mother I have reflected quite deeply on the question whether the book is racist. I define "racism" as a belief in the myth of White superiority …
Constitutional Sunsetting?: Justice O'Connor's Closing Comments On Grutter, Vikram David Amar, Evan H. Caminker
Constitutional Sunsetting?: Justice O'Connor's Closing Comments On Grutter, Vikram David Amar, Evan H. Caminker
Articles
Most Supreme Court watchers were unsurprised that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's vote proved pivotal in resolving the University of Michigan affirmative action cases; indeed, Justice O'Connor has been in the majority in almost every case involving race over the past decade, and was in the majority in each and every one of the 5-4 decisions the Court handed down across a broad range of difficult issues last Term. Some smaller number of observers were unsurprised that Justice O'Connor decided (along with the four Justices who in the past have voted to allow latitude with regard to race-based affirmative action programs) …
"I'M Usually The Only Black In My Class": The Human And Social Costs Of Within-School Segregation, Carla O'Connor
"I'M Usually The Only Black In My Class": The Human And Social Costs Of Within-School Segregation, Carla O'Connor
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
The work that has focused on within-school segregation has been most concerned with how this phenomenon limits the educational opportunities and might incur a psychological toll on the mass of Black students who find themselves relegated to lower-ability classrooms in integrated schools. This Article, however, allows us to begin to examine the other side of the coin. It reports on how within-school segregation practices create psychological, social, and educational pressures for those few Black students who have escaped enrollment in the least rigorous courses in their school. More precisely, the Article offers insight into how high achieving Black students in …
Separate But Unequal: The Status Of America's Public Schools, Michigan Journal Of Race & Law
Separate But Unequal: The Status Of America's Public Schools, Michigan Journal Of Race & Law
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Transcript of the symposium, which took place at the University of Michigan Law School on Saturday, February 9, 2002 in Hutchins Hall.
Putting Black Kids Into A Trick Bag: Anatomizing The Inner-City Public School Reform, Wilbur C. Rich
Putting Black Kids Into A Trick Bag: Anatomizing The Inner-City Public School Reform, Wilbur C. Rich
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Part I of this Article discusses the history of Brown, and the legal and political barriers that prevented the nation from fulfilling Brown's promise. Part II, will examine the phenomenon of White flight, which resulted from the efforts to implement the court-ordered desegregation of public schools. The political and economic effects of White flight on school reform efforts will also be examined. Part III will provide the reader with possible explanations for why school desegregation failed. The author will argue that the unexpected complexity of the task of desegregation, the lack of a unified direction among the judiciary, and …
The State Judiciary's Role In Fulfilling Brown's Promise, Quentin A. Palfrey
The State Judiciary's Role In Fulfilling Brown's Promise, Quentin A. Palfrey
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
After a brief overview of school finance litigation since Rodriguez and school desegregation cases since Brown, Part I argues that the "adequacy" model of reform addresses many of the underlying concerns of the equity model without sharing its methodological and strategic shortcomings. Part II focuses in more detail on Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State ("CFE"). Part III argues that education reform that is implemented after a finding that a state has violated a state constitutional duty should: (1) equalize funding to the extent necessary to guarantee certain minimum necessary inputs such as qualified teachers, small class …
The Children Left Behind: How Zero Tolerance Impacts Our Most Vulnerable Youth, Ruth Zweifler, Julia De Beers
The Children Left Behind: How Zero Tolerance Impacts Our Most Vulnerable Youth, Ruth Zweifler, Julia De Beers
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
The Michigan Journal of Race & Law Symposium, February 8th and 9th, 2002, at the University of Michigan examined the issue: Separate but Unequal: The Status of America's Public Schools. In the past, children of color were expressly denied an equal education on the basis of their race. Today's policies deny many children of color access to educational programs and supports, for reasons that are neutral on their face, with devastating consequences to the students, their families and their communities. The following article explores the concerns and experiences of a public service agency with the growing application of "Zero Tolerance" …
Silencing Culture And Culturing Silence: A Comparative Experience Of Centrifugal Forces In The Ethnic Studies Curriculum, Steven W. Bender
Silencing Culture And Culturing Silence: A Comparative Experience Of Centrifugal Forces In The Ethnic Studies Curriculum, Steven W. Bender
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Using the metaphor of silencing, Professor Margaret Montoya documents the irrelevance of race, gender, and socio-historical perspectives both in legal education and, more broadly, in legal discourse. Although others have invoked this metaphor, Professor Montoya's charting of the physical, rather than merely metaphorical, space of silence moves beyond this legal literature in several respects. Viewing silence not just as dead space, Professor Montoya enlivens and colors silence and other nonverbal aspects of communication as positive cultural traits. She demonstrates how silence can be used as a pedagogical tool (a centrifugal force) in the classroom and in client interviews to bring …
The Influence Of Race In School Finance Reform, James E. Ryan
The Influence Of Race In School Finance Reform, James E. Ryan
Michigan Law Review
It would be an exaggeration to say that school finance reform is all about race, but largely in the same way that it is an exaggeration to say that welfare reform is all about race. Like welfare reform, the controversy generated by school finance litigation and reform has, on the surface, little to do with race. Battles over school funding, which have been waged in nearly forty state supreme courts and at least as many state legislatures, instead appear to be over such issues as the redistribution of resources, retaining local control over education, and the efficacy of increased expenditures. …
Minority Preferences Reconsidered, Terrance Sandalow
Minority Preferences Reconsidered, Terrance Sandalow
Reviews
During the academic year 1965-66, at the height of the civil rights movement, the University of Michigan Law School faculty looked around and saw not a single African-American student. The absence of any black students was not, it should hardly need saying, attributable to a policy of purposeful exclusion. A black student graduated from the Law School as early as 1870, and in the intervening years a continuous flow of African-American students, though not a large number, had been admitted and graduated. Some went on to distinguished careers in the law.
Foxes Guarding The Chicken Coop: Intervention As Of Right And The Defense Of Civil Rights Remedies, Alan Jenkins
Foxes Guarding The Chicken Coop: Intervention As Of Right And The Defense Of Civil Rights Remedies, Alan Jenkins
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This article focuses on the recent spate of cases in which educational institutions on the grounds that their race-conscious admissions policies are unconstitutional. The author analyzes the role of minority students and organizations who are the beneficiaries of those polices at the defendant institutions and their recent attempts to intervene in the lawsuits pursuant to Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. First, the author argues that under the traditional interpretation of Rule 24(a); intervention of right should be granted to minority students and organizations in the great majority of instances. Second, the author looks at the reasons …
Rejoinder (Response To Article By William G. Bowen And Derek Bok), Terrance Sandalow
Rejoinder (Response To Article By William G. Bowen And Derek Bok), Terrance Sandalow
Articles
In The Shape of the River, presidents Bowen and Bok pronounce the race-sensitive admission policies adopted by selective undergraduate schools a resounding success. The evidence they adduce in support of that conclusion primarily concerns the performance of African-American students in and after college. But not all African-American students in those institutions were admitted in consequence of minority preference policies. Some, perhaps many, would have been admitted under race-neutral policies. I argued at several points in my review that since these students might be expected to be academically more successful than those admitted because of their race, the evidence on which …
Affirmative Action: Where Is It Coming From And Where Is It Going?, Denise Page Hood
Affirmative Action: Where Is It Coming From And Where Is It Going?, Denise Page Hood
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
A review of We Wont Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action by Charles R. Lawrence III & Mari J. Matsuda
College Admission And Affirmative Action- Consequences And Alternatives, Ihan Kim
College Admission And Affirmative Action- Consequences And Alternatives, Ihan Kim
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
A review of The Shape of the River: Long Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions by Derek Bok & William Bowen
Race-Conscious Diversity Admissions Programs: Furthering A Compelling Interest, Marty B. Lorenzo
Race-Conscious Diversity Admissions Programs: Furthering A Compelling Interest, Marty B. Lorenzo
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article argues that narrowly tailored, race-conscious admissions programs can be employed to achieve a more diverse student body and consequently a more enlightened and egalitarian society. An admissions body which looks beyond traditional academic indicators and explores the whole person of each applicant will matriculate a group of students with a wide variety of race, gender, class and other backgrounds, thereby fostering a robust exchange of ideas among these students. Pointing to the enduring precedential value of Bakke as well as the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court, this Article asserts that the Courts would likely uphold a program …
Illiberal Education: The Politics Of Race And Sex On Campus, Bruce Goldner
Illiberal Education: The Politics Of Race And Sex On Campus, Bruce Goldner
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus by Dinesh D'Souza
Britain, Blacks, And Busing, Derrick Bell
Britain, Blacks, And Busing, Derrick Bell
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Doing Good By Doing Little: Race and Schooling in Britain by David L. Kirp
Community Control, Public Policy, And The Limits Of Law, David L. Kirp
Community Control, Public Policy, And The Limits Of Law, David L. Kirp
Michigan Law Review
This Article deals with those two points of conflict-disputes about governance, race, and political power; and constitutional concerns, rooted in Brown v. Board of Education, about racially heterogeneous education. Both are central to understanding, and to giving content to, the disagreements about community control. The questions about power provide a context within which to understand the terms of the debate. The constitutional discussion suggests some inevitable judicial difficulties in resolving disputes that emerge from the debate. Such questions are increasingly before the courts, whose decisions may alter the bounds of acceptable conduct in ways that permit or deny the …