Appeals court overturns Michigan’s Prop 2

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has declared Proposal 2, the 2006 referendum that prohibited “preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin” by public colleges and universities in the state of Michigan, to be unconstitutional.

Prop 2, also known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, became a part of the Michigan constitution after being ratified by voters by a 58-47 margin in 2006. But now the federal court has declared it to be a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Noting that the Supreme Court “has twice held that equal protection does not permit the kind of political restructuring that Proposal 2 effected,” the three-judge panel concluded that the law “unconstitutionally alters Michigan’s political structure by impermissibly burdening racial minorities.”

Coincidentally, one of the key legal precedents cited in the ruling is Gratz v. Bollinger, a 2003 challenge to the University of Michigan’s race-based admissions policy. While the Supreme Court said in that case that universities could not use quotas to achieve racial diversity on campus, they could “consider race or ethnicity more flexibly as a ‘plus’ factor in the context of individualized consideration.”

You can read the full ruling here.