Sixth Circuit had ruled against referendum ban on considering race in college admissions

Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5188

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2014 /Standard Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement today regarding the U.S. Supreme Court 6-2 decision to uphold Michigan's affirmative action ban, which prevents the use of race as a factor in college admissions:

Today's decision is a green light for more states to take steps to end discriminatory racial preferences. The Court's ruling was a strong statement in support of the people's right to democratic self-governance, and against the detrimental spread of racial politics into all areas of American public life. Today's ruling is also a signal that Obama administration's dishonest use of the "race card" to advance its policy agendas may face significant skepticism in the Supreme Court.

Today's decision overturned a November 15, 2012, ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The lower court had ruled, 8-7, that the affirmative action ban, which Michigan voters overwhelmingly passed in a 2006 referendum, violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection laws.

Judicial Watch joined with the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) in filing an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in support of Proposition 2, Michigan's seven-year-old ban on the use of racial preferences in college admissions (Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action et al. (No. 12-682)).

According to the Judicial Watch-AEF amicus brief filed on July 1, 2013:

Among the harms caused by the Sixth Circuit's decision are: a dangerous erosion of the people's right to democratic self-governance; the needless further enshrinement of the intellectually impoverished concept of race into law; the perpetuation of a culture of racial and ethnic politics in American public life; and the perpetuation of racial and ethnic resentment and intolerance in American society.