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The Role Of The Hunter/Seattle Doctrine In Adjudicating Measures Against Affirmative Action, Gautam Y. Reddy

Gautam Y Reddy

In 1997, the Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 209, a ballot initiative that the citizens of California passed to ban affirmative action programs in the state. However, over a decade later in 2011, the Sixth Circuit reached the opposite conclusion regarding Proposal 2, a nearly identical ballot initiative passed by the voters of Michigan. At the core of this circuit split is the applicability of a rarely invoked Equal Protection test: the Hunter/Seattle Doctrine.

Controversy stems from the incongruity of this doctrine with the Rehnquist Court’s move towards a less deferential stance regarding affirmative action in key Equal …