Michigan Anti-Affirmative-Action Law Struck Down by Court

An amendment to Michigan’s state constitution that barred its public colleges from considering race, gender or ethnicity in admissions is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said.

The voter-initiated amendment, known as Proposal 2, placed special burdens on minority interests and violated equal protection laws, a majority of a 15-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said in a ruling today. A smaller panel of the court reached the same conclusion in July 2011.

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigration Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, a Detroit-based civil-rights organization, sued to challenge Proposal 2 in that city’s federal courthouse in November 2006.

The case is Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights v. Regents of the University of Michigan, 08-1387, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Cincinnati).

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