Supreme Court Ruling in Michigan Cases Not the Final Word on Affirmative Action
Feature Story by Civilrights.org staff - 6/3/2003
Civil rights advocates are bracing themselves for the potential fallout from the Supreme Court's upcoming rulings in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v.Bollinger. But even if the Court strikes down Michigan's use of race-based affirmative action in its admissions processes, it would hardly sound the death knell for race-based affirmative action, which is widely used in employment and government contracting.After the two lawsuits were filed in 1997, several Fortune 500 companies?including General Motors and Pepsi?rallied to the University of Michigan's defense, submitting amicus, or friend of the court, briefs. GM vice chair Harry J. Pearce notes, "In doing research on whether GM should involve itself in this lawsuit, we have been impressed with a growing body of research that concludes that college students who experience the most racial and ethnic diversity in classrooms and during interactions on campus become better learners and more effective citizens. Those are exactly the types of persons we want running our global business?better learners and more effective citizens."
Furthermore, as per several Executive Orders since the 1950s, the federal government requires that federal contractors "take affirmative action to ensure" equal opportunity. Additionally the federal government grants preference to minority-owned businesses. Such policies are constitutionally permissible, as the Court ruled in Adarand Constructors v. Pena. Even if the Court rejects the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies, the Court's ruling would likely only pertain to affirmative action in higher education; for the time being, the federal government, federal contractors and private businesses can all continue to use affirmative action as they have before.
Although affirmative action has gone far to remedy past discrimination, inequity in employment still exists. According to Americans for a Fair Chance, median annual earnings for full-time white male employees in 1997 were $39,331. But compared to what white males earned, African-American males earned only 77 percent of that, and African-American women earned even less, 64 percent.
Theodore M. Shaw, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund underscores the continuing need for affirmative action, "Deliberate efforts to redress racial inequality have netted tangible results. Despite progress, entrenched racial inequality from cradle to grave remains a feature of the American landscape. Colorblindness is not reality. Let us see race, and then act justly."
The decisions in Grutter and Gratz are expected in the upcoming weeks.
