6th Circuit Court Says Black and Latino Students Can Join Michigan Affirmative Action Cases

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, earlier this month, to allow Black and Latino students to become defendants in two lawsuits challenging the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions policies. The ruling reverses two prior decisions by a federal district court in Michigan that had barred minority students from becoming defendants in the cases.

In 1997, plaintiffs in Gratz v. Bollinger et al. and Grutter v. Bollinger et al. sued the University of Michigan over race-sensitive admissions policies they claim led to their being denied admission to the University of Michigan undergraduate college and the law school. The plaintiff's are …