Grutter v. Bollinger

Facts of the Case

Plaintiffs Barbara Grutter and Jennifer Gratz were represented by the Center for Individual Rights, a conservative organization seeking to end the use of race-conscious admissions policies. The named defendant in the case was Lee Bollinger, who was at that time the president of the University of Michigan; he fought for the university's existing policies with the purpose of achieving racial diversity in the student body.

Grutter, a White woman, applied to attend the University of Michigan Law School and was denied admission. She thereafter sued, alleging that her application was turned down because of the law school's affirmative action program, which required consideration of race and ethnicity in its admissions decisions. Specifically, she alleged that the program violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The law school's admissions policy, with the stated goal of admitting a diverse corps of qualified students, was designed to comply with the Supreme Court's standards as set forth in Bakke v. Regents of California (1978). In that case, the Court struck down an affirmative action program that held that diversity was a compelling interest that could, under some circumstances, justify the use of race in admissions decisions.

At the University of Michigan, law school admissions decisions were based on a composite score, which was compiled based on quantitative criteria such as the applicant's LSAT score and undergraduate grade point average, as well as qualitative factors such as the applicant's leadership and work experience, unique talents or interests, state of residence, quality of admissions essay, the reputation of the undergraduate institution, and difficulty of undergraduate courses taken.

In addition, the admissions policy allowed special consideration for students who had low composite scores, but who exhibited various factors that would enrich diversity at the university. The applicant's race and ethnicity were considered as part of diversity. Specifically, the admissions committee considered the number of minority students and sought to enroll a critical mass of those under-represented students. However, the school did not set aside seats for students of specific races and did not establish a separate applicant pool by race.

After a trial, the federal district court ruled in favor of Grutter, finding that the law school's admissions policy was equivalent to a racial quota system. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed while at the same time affirming the federal district court's decision upholding the university's undergraduate affirmative action policy in Gratz v. Bollinger, another University of Michigan case focused on a race-conscious admissions program at the undergraduate level.

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