Articles

Author: Joshua Thompson Proposal 2, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, bans preferential treatment on account of race or sex in  Michigan government.  The constitutionality of Proposal 2 was challenged immediately by a number of defendants who could no longer receive preferential treatment to attend Michigan Universities. ...

Author: Joshua Thompson Three years after accepting review, the California Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, rejected the City and County of San Francisco's attempt to get Proposition 209 declared unconstitutional.  In Coral Construction v. City and County of San Francisco, PLF challenged a City and County of San Francisco con ...

It’s rare on the Liberty Blog that we bring you news on the weekend, but we just received word that the Ninth Circuit has denied the petition for rehearing en banc in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Brown.  Once again, Proposition 209 is safe from the activists who want to see racial preferences reinjected into … ...

The Sixth Circuit, sitting en banc, declared Proposal 2 unconstituional under the Equal Protection Clause today. Proposal 2 is Michigan’s landmark constitutional amendment that banned racial preferences and discrimination by state and local government. Think about that for a second — a constitutional amendment banning discrimination is ...

Last Friday I explained the Sixth Circuit’s embarrassing decision to strike down Michigan’s Proposal 2.  President of the National Association of Scholars (and longtime PLF friend) Peter Wood, has been assembling similar reactions to the Sixth Circuit’s decision.  For example, here is what Ward Connerly had to say: There is no ...

  After 31 years, the Supreme Court will finally take another look at the “political structure” doctrine.  If you didn’t read Monday’s post by PLF College of Public Interest Law fellow, Jonathan Wood, you may be unfamiliar with that doctrine.  In 1969, and again in 1982, the United States Supreme Court relied ...

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The issue in that case is whether the Equal Protection Clause guarantees individuals the right to unequal – or preferential – treatment.  Logically, the answer should be no.  The Equal Protection Clause provides that no state shall de ...

Last week I was in Washington, D.C. for the oral argument in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.  This is the case that is challenging whether voters have the right to prohibit racial preferences by government.  In 1996, California voters becase the first to adopt such a ban when they passed Proposition 209, and since that time ...

After eight years of litigation, Michigan’s decision to ban governmental racial classifications has been upheld by the Supreme Court. PLF has been heavily involved in this case since its inception — we represented the ballot sponsors — and this decision is great news.  You can read the opinion here.  I’ll have more on the ...