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Death Mage · Raving Lunatic

You know, I was looking through the 14th amendment, and I couldn't find anything about that in it. To me, ti just looked like guidelines for citizens, elected officials, and some voting information, nothing about "equal rights".

Maybe I misread it.

Pablo · Never Draws a Blank

I corrected my post. I meant the "15th" amendment. Sorry.

Death Mage · Raving Lunatic

And I checked the 15th as well, it seems to be solely limited to voting rights.

Pablo · Never Draws a Blank

Death Mage · Raving Lunatic

But the case before the Supreme Court involved a private school and their admission rights. Congress did not pass a law, in this particular case, that said minorities got an advantage.

Playing devil's advocate here. It's racism, pure and simple, but I'm not seeing it as the breach of the Constitution.

Pablo · Never Draws a Blank

So if the Supreme Court makes a ruling that is clearly racist, does it really matter if there is a "breach of the constitution?" It may be a fun debate to engage in, but I will concede the point to you. Technically now, no breach.

However, I personally think that it opens the door for all states to interpret the constitution in a new way, which could easily lead to what you would consider a breach.

Jack Crazyquilt · Daedalian Member

Sounds like the Supreme Court needs a good swift kick in the breaches.

ML · Table Master

Michigan is actually a public school, with public funding (I think). It is boound more closely to these sorts of laws than a private school.

IMHO to complicating factor is when they started considering "compelling state interest". Makes it difficult to predict what the rulings will be.

Samadhi · +1

I feel out of the loop. Which Michigan issue?

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A One that isn't cold, is scarcely a One at all.

Fried Egg · Breakfast Cannibal

ML · Table Master

Samadhi,
The supreme court decided two affirmative action cases earlier this week which were based on University of Michigan admissions policies. (Michigan's press release).

They decided that the undergraduate policy, which awarded 20 points to underrepresented minorities (on a 150 point scale, 100 points to get in) was illegal, because it applied the racial aspect in a "cold mechanical manner". The law school, which considers each applicant individually in a "holistic" manner, that includes race, in an effort to acheive a "critical mass" is legal.

Of course, the law school has many many fewer applicant/year, and there probably is an effective "point system", just not written down, or fully understood. But by not writing it down or understanding it, it's OK.

Really, this probably deserves another thread, since it has nothing to do with the initial topic.

The Anonymous Sarcast · Guest

I had an argument with someone about the Michigan undergraduate admissions point system, and said how I thought it was clearly racially discriminatory. He said it wasn't at all to give a hand up to underrepresented minorities. I gave him this thought exercise:

Rather than setting the admissions cut-off at 100 points, and summarily awarding 20 points to non-whites, set the admissions cut-off to 80 points, and summarily subtract 20 points from all white applicants' total scores. The same exact set of applicants will be admitted. Is there a difference? It is pretty clear that in the hypothetical case, applicants are penalized for being white. How then is this not the case with the actual system?

He hasn't gotten back to me on that one yet.

Samadhi · +1

Well, the muscle for that particular exercise may have atrophied.