By Dan Levine
SAN FRANCISCO, April 2 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court
upheld California’s ban on the use of affirmative action in
university admissions on Monday, reaffirming that public schools
cannot base admission on race, gender or ethnicity.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
upholding so-called Proposition 209 comes as affirmative action
resurfaces as a live issue at the top of the U.S. legal system.
“Today’s ruling is good news for everyone who values
fairness and equal opportunity, because Proposition 209
guarantees fair treatment for everyone, regardless of skin
color, sex, or ethnic ancestry,” Ralph W. Kasarda, who argued
the case for the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, said in
a statement.
Proposition 209, passed by voters over 15 years ago, has
prompted fierce debate for years in California. Opponents said
it narrowed opportunities for women and minorities to succeed in
the state. Supporters countered it simply created a system where
individual ability was rewarded.
The plaintiffs in the California challenge argued that the
number of African American, Latino and Native American freshmen
at UCLA and U.C. Berkeley dropped by over 50 percent in the wake
of Proposition 209.
However, a lower court judge dismissed the challenge, and on
Monday a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit affirmed that
ruling.
The panel wrote it had already established a precedent on
the issue when it upheld the affirmative action bar in a
previous opinion in the 1990s, and said prior 9th Circuit
caselaw had already taken falling minority enrollment into
account.
An attorney for the plaintiffs, a group of high school and
college students, could not immediately be reached late on
Monday.
The issue of affirmative action will ultimately go to the
U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed in February to decide if a
state university may consider an applicant’s race to achieve a
more diverse student body, revisiting in an election year a
divisive social issue it last addressed nine years ago.
In the case now under consideration, the high court agreed
to hear an appeal by a white female applicant who was denied
undergraduate admission in 2008 to the University of Texas at
Austin. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the
case in its upcoming term that begins in October.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa
Shumaker)
