8-10-1999

Pro-Affirmative Action Forces to Join University of Michigan Litigation In Reversal of Federal Court Orders

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Forty-one black, Latino, Asian-American, Filipino and white students, along with three pro-affirmative action coalitions-United for Equality and Affirmative Action (UEAA), the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), and Law Students for Affirmative Action (LSAA) were granted the right to intervene in a nationally prominent affirmative action case involving the University of Michigan Law School, and will join the University in presenting arguments in defense of affirmative action at trial. Students and a coalition who sought to take part in a similar case involving the University's undergraduate college will now also be allowed to join the litigation.

This morning, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati announced a reversal of the federal district rulings which had kept the students out of the lawsuits.

The students hailed the decision as a turning-point in the struggle to defend affirmative action that has been gathering force on the nation's campuses for more than a year.

"The new civil rights movement against resegregation that has been built at the University of Michigan and in colleges and high schools across the country is now at the center of the legal defense of affirmative action - we will be heard and we will prevail," said Jessica Curtin, who is a student intervenor, BAMN member, and University of Michigan student government representative from the Defend Affirmative Action Party.

"This is a major setback for the right-wing, racist and sexist attack against affirmative action and equality in education," she added.

The decision marks the first time that minority students will have the opportunity to participate in litigation over affirmative action admissions policies.

"This is a historic occasion and a victory of profound importance. The intervenors will bring the truth about racism in higher education into the courtroom, and will show that continuing bias and inequality make affirmative action necessary and just," said Miranda Massie, lead counsel for the law school intervenors.