The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Brief of the States of Maryland, et al. as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents in Gratz v. Bollinger, et al.

Legal Brief - February 19, 2003 -

• Equal protection review of a public university's admissions decisions requires accommodation of First Amendment interests and respect for the states' traditional role in education
  
• Public education issues are best left up to the states, as they always have been
  
• Public universities have a compelling interest in the educational benefits of a diverse student body
  
• An admissions program that provides for individualized, weighted consideration of race is narrowly tailored
  
• The mere existence of alternatives does not preclude a university from establishing that a race-conscious admissions program is narrowly tailored to achieve its diversity goals