Michigan Law School Prepares for Historic Affirmative Action Trial
By Erik Lords

Detroit
When an affirmative action lawsuit against the University of Michigan's law school goes to trial here this month, it will be thick with historical significance.
Lawyers for a group of intervening minority students in the case will present an unprecedented legal argument, and they will call to the witness stand a "dream team" of some of America's foremost experts, scholars and historians to testify on behalf of affirmative action.
The intervenors — a group of 58 individuals — mostly minority students at Michigan — won the right to enter the case in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati last year (see Black Issues, Dec. 7). Their argument differs from the university's stance that affirmative action is necessary to ensure a diverse student body.
They will describe for the first time in court how the criteria for admission — including grades and the law school admissions test — discriminate against minority students. They will also link deficiencies at K-12 schools to law school admissions, another first, legal experts say.
"This is a tremendous victory because for the first time the basic question of equality regarding law schools will be front and center," says Miranda Massie, a Detroit lawyer for the intervening students. "The racism of the basic admissions criteria will be exposed."
Agnes Aleobua, 19, a current Michigan student and witness in the case, graduated from Cass Technical High School in Detroit. The school is one of the city's better public schools, but is located in one of its worst neighborhoods. She says she welcomes the opportunity to share her story with the court.
"I will have an opportunity to testify about being a beneficiary of affirmative action," she told the Detroit Free Press. "There were rats and roaches at Cass Tech, shortages of teachers and a lack of textbooks. Without a trial, I could not register the inequalities in the K-12 educational process and the racism at U-M."
Legal experts say the intervenors' presence gives Michigan a potent 1-2 punch in the case.
"It gives the court another legal ground on which to decide the case in favor of the university," says Susan Low Bloch, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. "I don't think the discrimination argument detracts at all from the diversity argument."
The intervenors' argument comes at a time when law school officials around the nation are being urged by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) to expand their core admissions criteria to develop a more diverse pool of applicants.