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.
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