The University of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan law school is a notable law school for several reasons. First off, of course, is the fact that it’s a fine law school that produces lawyers of national renown. It’s also one of the largest “great” law schools in America, and is part of the larger University of Michigan system that itself is considered one of the finest public institutions of higher learning in the United States of America.
But what really put university of michigan law school on front page is the issue of affirmative action. We see in the case “Gutter v Bollinger”, which was brought to the Supreme Court of the United States of America in 2003, that university of michigan law school was at the center of this hot-button issue.
Wikipedia’s entry on the case reads in part as follows:
The case originated in 1996 when Barbara Grutter, a White Michigan resident with a 3.8 GPA and 161 Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) score, was rejected by the University of Michigan Law School. She contacted the Center for Individual Rights which filed suit on her behalf in December 1997, alleging that the university had discriminated against her on the basis of race in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She said she was rejected because the Law School used race as the main factor, giving applicants belonging to underrepresented minority groups (African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans) a significantly greater chance of admission than White and Asian American applicants with similar credentials. She argued that the university had no compelling interest to justify that use of race.
The named defendant in the case was Lee Bollinger, who was at that time the president of the university, who fought for the university’s status quo, with the purpose of achieving racial diversity in the student body.
Fortunately for the university of michigan law school and for civil rights and equality in the country as a whole, the Supreme Court found 5-4 in the favor of Bollinger. As such, it was upheld that schools pursuing diversity in the student body was not a violation of the equal protection clause under the law.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court, was the author of the majority opinion in the case. Chief justice Rehnquist authored the dissent.
