Blacks & Hispanics Plan Lawsuit To Demand Affirmative Action Admissions In California. Asians and East Indians See No Need To Join Suit

LA Times: Activists challenge Proposition 209, charging that the 1996 law on university admissions violates right to equal protection under the Constitution

The key point that I fail to understand about those who struggle for "Affirmative Action" admissions for elite/prestigious schools is that they fail to apply dimensions to this particular segment of "minority" students as compared to the "broad middle" which this lawsuit does not address.

The truth is that all of the students seeking Affirmative Access admission into Berkeley, USC or UCSD will qualify for college somewhere in the country.

In the "wide middle" of the population of Black and Hispanic students there are two types of individuals who size far outsizes the group they are focusing upon:

• High School graduates who, if were better prepared would be admitted to college
• High School drop outs that would receive their high school diploma

If there was a wholesale focus upon the schools, having every group advancing up to the next "standard deviation" then purely on the basis that there are more candidates seeking admissions - we'd see an increase in minority admissions at these elite colleges.   In addition to this all of the other groups in the high schools in question would benefit - unlike the case with this lawsuit which merely asks the colleges to change their admissions processes.

Seeking to increase the ranks of black, Latino and Native American students at the University of California, civil rights activists said they will file a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state law that bans affirmative action in admissions.

The suit contends that Proposition 209, which was passed by California voters in 1996, violates equal protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and says it has limited the numbers of non-Asian minority students at UC's most selective campuses. The suit also criticizes the university system for relying too heavily on high school grades and test scores in admissions, saying that the practice discriminates against students from schools without strong honors classes and counseling.

"Proposition 209 has created a racial caste system in which the state's most prestigious schools train mostly white students and students from some Asian backgrounds," said the suit, which names Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC President Mark G. Yudof as defendants. It is expected to be filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and is being brought on behalf of California students by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, known as BAMN.

In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Proposition 209, despite an appeal that government should use racial preferences to make up for past bias.

George Washington, a Detroit-based attorney for the group, said the legal environment has changed enough in recent years that his case can succeed. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in a case involving the University of Michigan's law school, which allowed colleges to consider race as a factor in admissions as long as they do not use quotas.

UC spokesman Steve Montiel said the university cannot ignore Proposition 209. "If this [suit] opens up another discussion, that's well and good, but as long as Proposition 209 is the law, we're obliged to follow it," he said.

Within those limits, UC is doing as much as it can through financial aid and other efforts "to ensure the widest possible access," he said.