Court hears challenge to CA affirmative action ban

AP/CBS News ^ | Feb 13, 2012 | AP

[WilliamIII]

AP) SAN FRANCISCO — Backers of affirmative action asked a federal appeals court Monday to overturn California's 15-year-old ban on considering race in public college admissions, citing a steep drop in black, Latino and Native American students at the state's elite campuses.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal heard arguments in the latest legal challenge to Proposition 209, the landmark voter initiative that barred racial, ethnic and gender preferences in public education, employment and contracting.

The affirmative action ban has withstood multiple challenges since voters approved it in 1996, but advocates say their campaign to overturn it has been bolstered by recent court decisions, as well as support from Gov. Jerry Brown.

Dozens of minority students backing the plaintiffs filled the courtroom for the hour-long hearing, when the justices questioned whether they should tamper with a 1997 ruling in which the same appellate court upheld Proposition 209.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said affirmative action is needed to increase racial diversity at the University of California's most prestigious campuses and professional schools.

"What you see before you is a new form of separate and unequal going on right before our eyes," plaintiffs' attorney George Washington told the three male justices.

Ralph Kasarda, who is defending Proposition 209, told the justices that the San Francisco-based appellate court was correct when it upheld the affirmative action ban.

"Proposition 209 guarantees everyone's right to be treated fairly and not be discriminated against based on skin color or gender," said Kasarda, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the sponsors of the 1996 ballot measure.

[rottndog]

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said affirmative action is needed to increase racial diversity at the University of California's most prestigious campuses and professional schools.

They are arguing for the right to discriminate FOR some on the basis of race. It is not possible to do this without discriminating AGAINST others on the basis of race.

[takenoprisoner]

It’s time for AA to expire. It’s a discriminatory practice, based on a presumptuous model, that blacks are incapable of, and inferior to, others. Nothing could be further from the truth. Black Americans, like any other Americans, can compete with the best there is. So yes, let’s end this discriminatory process which deludes their accomplishments.

I can’t imagine any black American who wishes to be known for their success as an AA candidate. How humiliating that must be?

[U-238]

I thought that the SCOTUS settled this in Gratz v. Bollinger.

[AbolishCSEU]

Exactly! My son is half black and half white. He is 3/4 of the way through Air Force Basic Training and he is and always has been disgusted with “set asides” where one qualifies on the basis of skin color and not brain matter.

If blacks and Hispanics are falling behind academically then it’s up to THEIR OWN community to rectify the situation (namely PARENTS) and not the government. BTW he is a registered pubbie to vote in the NYS primary.

[nerdwithagun]

Racial diversity is NOTHING unless it happens organically. If these people can't meet standards of the job or college application, they need to look internally not externally

[matt04]

Just like a employer can say they are a EEO/AA employer. Never could figure that out.