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Anyone think this will have any implications for Med school admissions?
WASHINGTON (Jan. 15) - President Bush, stepping into a major affirmative action case, asserted Wednesday that a program of racial preferences for minority applicants at the University of Michigan was ''fundamentally flawed'' and unconstitutional.
The program ''amounts to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students solely on their race,'' Bush said in announcing that his administration would file a legal brief in the case with the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The administration's brief will narrowly apply to the Michigan program, officials said.
Bush's move drew strong criticism from civil rights groups, and Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle called it ''a watershed moment for the administration.'' Before the announcement he said, ''They have to decide whether they're for civil rights and diversity or not.''
''I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education,'' Bush said. But he added, ''The method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this goal is fundamentally flawed.''
He said that some students at the university are selected or rejected on the color of their skin. ''The motivation for this administration policy may be very good, but the result is discrimination. And that discrimination is very wrong,'' Bush said.
He spoke in the Roosevelt Room of the White House and declined to take questions.
Bush said that ''racial prejudice is a reality in our country'' but that, in trying to fix the problem, ''we must not use means that create another wrong.''
The president said Americans should not be satisfied with the current numbers of minorities on college campuses.
''Our government must work to make college more affordable for students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and because we're committed to racial justice, we must make sure that America's public schools offer a quality education to every child from every background,'' Bush said.
The politically charged issue forced the president to balance the desires of his conservative backers, who staunchly oppose affirmative action, against the potential reaction from the broader electorate if he is viewed as being racially insensitive.
Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School who says he'll seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, plans to file a brief in support of the university's program.
''I believe affirmative action is an essential tool in expanding educational opportunities to minorities,'' he said.
Complicating the president's decision was the fallout from Sen. Trent Lott's remarks that seemed to hold nostalgia for the days when segregation was accepted in parts of the nation. Bush condemned the comments last month, and the Republican Party has been trying to attract more minority voters.
In a sign of the White House's discomfort with the issue, press secretary Ari Fleischer spoke of Bush's support of diversity while also discussing the president's plans to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, increase aid to Africa and funnel more money to black colleges.
The university's affirmative action question is one of the most-watched issues before the high court this year and could yield the court's most important statement on the use of racial preferences in a quarter-century.
Bush called quotas unconstitutional, but he did not say the use of race is always unconstitutional in selecting students. Instead he focused on the particulars of the Michigan programs, which assign additional points to minority undergraduate applicants and try to ensure that a certain percentage of law school students are minority.
The Michigan programs, like those of many public institutions nationwide, were designed to comply with the Supreme Court's last, somewhat murky pronouncement on the issue.
The court's decision in the 1978 Bakke case involving a white applicant rejected from a public medical school in California banned the outright use of racial quotas but still allowed university admissions officers to use race as a factor.
At Michigan, white students sued, claiming reverse discrimination.
In Texas, as governor, Bush opposed racial preferences in public universities and proposed instead that students graduating in the top 10 percent of all high schools be eligible for admission to state schools. Supporters say that had the effect of continuing a stream of minority students, because some public high schools are nearly all black or Hispanic.
States across the country are wrestling with ways to keep up minority enrollment in public colleges, and several are operating under court orders or negotiated agreements to end discrimination.
WASHINGTON (Jan. 15) - President Bush, stepping into a major affirmative action case, asserted Wednesday that a program of racial preferences for minority applicants at the University of Michigan was ''fundamentally flawed'' and unconstitutional.
The program ''amounts to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students solely on their race,'' Bush said in announcing that his administration would file a legal brief in the case with the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The administration's brief will narrowly apply to the Michigan program, officials said.
Bush's move drew strong criticism from civil rights groups, and Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle called it ''a watershed moment for the administration.'' Before the announcement he said, ''They have to decide whether they're for civil rights and diversity or not.''
''I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education,'' Bush said. But he added, ''The method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this goal is fundamentally flawed.''
He said that some students at the university are selected or rejected on the color of their skin. ''The motivation for this administration policy may be very good, but the result is discrimination. And that discrimination is very wrong,'' Bush said.
He spoke in the Roosevelt Room of the White House and declined to take questions.
Bush said that ''racial prejudice is a reality in our country'' but that, in trying to fix the problem, ''we must not use means that create another wrong.''
The president said Americans should not be satisfied with the current numbers of minorities on college campuses.
''Our government must work to make college more affordable for students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and because we're committed to racial justice, we must make sure that America's public schools offer a quality education to every child from every background,'' Bush said.
The politically charged issue forced the president to balance the desires of his conservative backers, who staunchly oppose affirmative action, against the potential reaction from the broader electorate if he is viewed as being racially insensitive.
Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School who says he'll seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, plans to file a brief in support of the university's program.
''I believe affirmative action is an essential tool in expanding educational opportunities to minorities,'' he said.
Complicating the president's decision was the fallout from Sen. Trent Lott's remarks that seemed to hold nostalgia for the days when segregation was accepted in parts of the nation. Bush condemned the comments last month, and the Republican Party has been trying to attract more minority voters.
In a sign of the White House's discomfort with the issue, press secretary Ari Fleischer spoke of Bush's support of diversity while also discussing the president's plans to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, increase aid to Africa and funnel more money to black colleges.
The university's affirmative action question is one of the most-watched issues before the high court this year and could yield the court's most important statement on the use of racial preferences in a quarter-century.
Bush called quotas unconstitutional, but he did not say the use of race is always unconstitutional in selecting students. Instead he focused on the particulars of the Michigan programs, which assign additional points to minority undergraduate applicants and try to ensure that a certain percentage of law school students are minority.
The Michigan programs, like those of many public institutions nationwide, were designed to comply with the Supreme Court's last, somewhat murky pronouncement on the issue.
The court's decision in the 1978 Bakke case involving a white applicant rejected from a public medical school in California banned the outright use of racial quotas but still allowed university admissions officers to use race as a factor.
At Michigan, white students sued, claiming reverse discrimination.
In Texas, as governor, Bush opposed racial preferences in public universities and proposed instead that students graduating in the top 10 percent of all high schools be eligible for admission to state schools. Supporters say that had the effect of continuing a stream of minority students, because some public high schools are nearly all black or Hispanic.
States across the country are wrestling with ways to keep up minority enrollment in public colleges, and several are operating under court orders or negotiated agreements to end discrimination.
