6-7-99     

For Immediate Release
June 7, 1999
 

Black, Latino, and other minority students’ Federal Appeals hearing for right to participate in affirmative action challenge

Appeals argument follows extraordinary grant of a stay of the proceedings in the District Court

TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1999:

PICKET & PRESS CONFERENCE AT 8:30 AM; HEARING AT 9:00 AM

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals - Potter Stewart Courthouse, Cincinnati, Ohio
 

On Tuesday, June 8, forty-one black, Latino, Arab-American, Asian-American, Filipino and white students will present arguments to a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to gain the right to defend affirmative action along with the University of Michigan in the anti-affirmative action lawsuit filed against the University’s Law School.

The intervenors seek to enter the lawsuit in order to ensure that the interests of the real targets of the lawsuit, those actually affected by affirmative action, are represented broadly, fully and forcefully in the courts. "It was outrageous and ran contrary to the applicable law for the students to be excluded from the case by the District Court," said Miranda Massie, attorney for the intervenors. "The fate of equality in higher education cannot and must not be decided without the students’ participation, especially on the question of existing discrimination and bias in admissions. We believe that the Court of Appeals will correct the error made by the District Judge."

The student intervenors are leaders in the emerging new national civil rights movement, and have led the organizing of a series of National Days of Action In Defense of Affirmative Action, which has drawn the participation of over 100 campuses nationwide. Many of the intervenors from the University of Michigan are elected student representatives on the student government (Michigan Student Assembly) in the Defend Affirmative Action Party.

The proposed student intervenors in the U-M Law School case will present arguments in tandem with those attempting to intervene into the undergraduate lawsuit, which consists of a coalition that includes the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

In a favorable and rare ruling, both sets of proposed student intervenors were granted stays at the Federal district court level last week – in effect, forcing the anti-affirmative action lawsuits to be put on hold until after a determination is made this Tuesday on whether the students will be allowed to participate.