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COX JOINS PROPOSAL 2 ENFORCEMENT SUIT Attorney General Mike Cox announced Thursday he had asked to join proponents of an end to racially-based affirmative action in requesting the courts force state universities to end those preferences. The Center for Individual Rights, in filings Thursday in the Washtenaw Circuit Court, asked the court to order the state's universities to end all racial considerations in admissions and financial aid decisions. And Mr. Cox filed a motion to intervene in that case on behalf of the state. "Essentially we're asking the state courts to now order the universities to enforce Proposal 2 immediately," Terry Pell with the center told Gongwer News Service. "From the beginning, I have said that Proposal 2 is constitutional," Mr. Cox said. "And my first duty as attorney general is to uphold and defend the Constitution." Proposal 2006-2, approved by voters in November, prohibits race- and sex-based affirmative action programs for state and local government hiring and contracting as well as for university admissions. Mr. Pell said filings by the universities in a recent federal court action indicated at least the three research universities - Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Wayne State University - consider race in admissions or financial aid decisions. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an agreement between the state and the universities to delay implementation of the amendment until June to allow the institutions to get through the admissions process for the coming school year before changing policies. "Now, it has become clear from recent media reports that Michigan's public universities do have the capability to comply with Proposal 2," Mr. Cox said. "It is time to move forward and comply with Proposal 2. I will move vigorously to defend what the people have overwhelmingly supported." Mr. Pell said the group had not yet looked at specific programs, such as the King/Parks/Chavez program, that base scholarships on race, but he expected that such programs would be addressed as the action goes forward.