Articles

Oral argument in Proposal 2 case this Tuesday

November 13, 2009 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

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. ...

Articles

Separate and UN-equal in Michigan

May 05, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson In one of the most outrageous instances of flat-out unconstitutional intentional discrimination that I have come across in a while, I present Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  It seems that a group of black students were given a field trip to go see a renowned rocket scientist. Only the blac ...

Articles

Update on Ann Arbor's separate and unequal field trips

May 14, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson Late last week, I mentioned the outrageous story of Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  As you recall, that school decided to send a group of African-American students on a field trip to see a renowned rocket scientist.  All other students, white and minority alike, were prohibited from going on the ...

Articles

Sixth Circuit holds Michigan's ban on discrimination is unconstitutional.

July 01, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

In a disappointing 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today held that Article I, Section 26 of the Michigan Constitution is unconstitutional. … ...

Articles

Why are California government officials urging the Sixth Circuit to overturn Proposal 2?

November 01, 2011 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Since Proposal 2 was passed back in 2006, PLF has been defending its constitutionality in the courts.  Proposal 2, of course, is Michigan’s Proposition 209 analog, banning the use of race in government education, contracting, and employment. And PLF, as a national organization dedicated to protecting a colorblind constitution, it made sense ...

Articles

Proposal 2 in front of the full Sixth Circuit today

March 07, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Today, the Sixth Circuit, sitting en banc, will be hearing the case of Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Regents of the University of Michigan. This case challenges the constitutionality of Proposal 2, a statewide constitutional amendment that banned the use of race by Michigan state and local governments.  You can read PLF’s brief h ...

Articles

The Sixth Circuit’s embarrassing decision

November 16, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

As we reported on Thursday, the Sixth Circuit declared Michigan’s Proposal 2 unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.  The decision has been roundly condemned throughout the legal community.  For good reason.  The decision defies both logic and common sense by holding that Proposal 2 — a state constitutional amendment proh ...

Articles

Michigan AG files cert. petition two weeks after Proposal 2 decision

November 29, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

That was fast!  After the Sixth Circuit’s horrendous decision striking down Michigan’s equal rights amendment two weeks ago, the Michigan Attorney General filed this certiorari petition yesterday to ask the Supreme Court to take up the case.  Kudos to the AG’s office for this ueber-quick response to an unjustifiable ruling. I ...

Articles

Sixth Circuit’s Proposal 2 decision : Teetering on the brink of incoherence

January 02, 2013 | By RALPH KASARDA

Attorneys for PLF filed a brief this week in the United States Supreme Court asking that Court to review the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Regents of the Univ. Of Michigan.  In that decision, the Sixth Circuit held that the Fourteenth Amendment gives groups of a particular race the r ...