LANSING, Mich.

Supporters of Michigan’s Proposal 2 won a key legal battle late Friday, as a federal appeals court lifted an injunction that had given the state’s three major universities six more months to comply with parts of the new law.

The opinion means the state’s voter-approved ban on some types of public affirmative action program goes into full effect as court cases proceed.

At least one pro-affirmative action group already is planning to appeal Friday’s ruling.

Michigan voters approved Proposal 2 -- which bans the use of race and gender preferences in university admissions and government hiring and contracting -- in November. The new law took effect Dec. 23, except for admissions and financial aid decisions for the incoming classes at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Michigan State University.

That exception was granted earlier this month by U.S. District Judge David Lawson. The extension would expire July 1.

The appeals court said federal law does not warrant providing an extension.

“In the absence of any likelihood of prevailing in invalidating this state initiative on federal grounds, we have no choice but to permit its enforcement in accordance with the state-law framework that gave it birth,” the three-judge panel of 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati wrote.

The appeals court said that while the U.S. Constitution may permit states to grant race and gender preferences in some narrow instances, it does not mandate preferences or stop a state from prohibiting them. The appeals court said a suspension of Proposal 2 enforcement is an issue that could be decided in state courts rather than federal courts.

The universities asked for the extension because they already had begun the admissions cycles for next year’s students before Proposal 2 passed. The universities want to complete the cycles using the same standards that have been in place since the process began earlier this year.