The Supreme Court Rulings in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger: The Brave New World of Affirmative Action in the 21st Century



The Supreme Court Rulings in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger: The Brave New World of Affirmative Action in the 21st Century

This article discusses the information regarding the cases of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger in the United States Supreme Court. The case number of the Grutter v. Bollinger case is 02-0241 that was being argued on 1st April, 2003. On 23rd June, 2003, the case was decided. The law school of university of Michigan denied the admission of Barbara Grutter who was the petitioner in the case. She was a resident of Michigan and belonged to white race. She alleged in the court defending her case that the law school of the University of Michigan has disseminated against her due to racial dissemination. She filed a law suit against the school of law, university of Michigan. The case was reviewed and the district court of United States for the Michigan eastern district identify that the school of law at university of Michigan tend to use the racial discrimination as the admission factor. They found that the admissions on the basis of racial discrimination are totally unlawful. However, the decision was reversed when the sixth circuit entered into the case. The narrowly tailored admission policy that requires admissions should be done on racial basis was justified as a compelling interest of government in the educational institutions in order to prevent diversity and provide educational benefits to the students. It was supported by the equal protection clause of United States law which do not prohibit from specific admissions based upon race. In the same way, the Gratz v. Bollinger lawsuit was also diminished and the case was solved outside the court through an agreement among the parties.

The court followed the historic decisions of the United States Supreme Court 2003 decisions that states that for the compelling interests and upholding the diversity, the changes can be made in the admission processes. They required a change in the admission process and mechanics of the school of law, university of Michigan where the admissions are given of the presence of race. For this reason, the court then returned the petitioners Gratz and Grutter to the district court of the United States for the resolution of the problem and case and to enable further proceedings of the case. The eastern district of Michigan followed the court rulings and evaluated the clause of equal protection which allows the universities to protect the diverse student body for the compelling interest of the students themselves and the government.

In the last week of the agreement among the two parties in the case of Gratz v. Bollinger, the settlement was being approved by the district court of eastern district Michigan. The proposed settlement of the case involved the dropping of lawsuits by the plaintiffs namely Hamacher and ...