Washington
National and local civil rights groups are hoping to
accomplish in Michigan what Texas officials failed to do during Hopwood
v. Texas — that is, prevent the restriction of educational
opportunities for Black and Latino students.
On February 5, the Detroit-based Citizens for Affirmative Action’s
Preservation (CAAP) and a coalition of national civil rights
organizations filed a motion in federal court on behalf of seventeen
African American and Latino high school students to allow them to join
the University of Michigan and its administrators as defendants in a
reverse discrimination lawsuit.
“The question is whether [public universities] can defend
affirmative action in the most vigorous way, given the political
pressures they face,” declared civil rights attorney Ted Shaw at a
recent news briefing in Washington, D.C.
The seventeen minority students are seeking to become defendants
“because the suit directly threatens their access to their State’s
flagship public institution of higher education and…may diminish
their access to colleges and universities throughout the state of
Michigan,” according to the motion filed last month.
“I think [the motion to intervene] puts a face on the Black and
Latino students who are affected by [the anti-affirmative action
suit].” said Pat Mendoza, regional director of the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
The motion to intervene in the Michigan case marks a strategic move
by members of the civil rights community. It will allow them to argue
that the lawsuit represents a grave threat to educational access for
Black and Latino students.
