| Gratz v. Bollinger | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued April 1, 2003 Decided June 23, 2003 | |
| Full case name | Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher v.Lee Bollinger, et al. |
| Docket no. | 02-516 |
| Citations | 539U.S.244 (more) 123 S. Ct. 2411; 156L. Ed. 2d 257; 2003U.S. LEXIS 4801; 71 U.S.L.W. 4480; 91 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1803; 84 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) ¶ 41,416; 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5362; 16 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 387 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Summary judgment granted in part to plaintiffs, 122F. Supp. 2d811 (E.D. Mich. 2000); Summary judgment granted to plaintiffs, 135 F. Supp. 2d790 (E.D. Mich. 2001); consolidated on appeal withGrutter v. Bollinger beforeen banc court, 277F.3d803 (6th Cir. 2001);cert. before judgment granted,537 U.S. 1044 (2002). |
| Subsequent | On remand, 80Fed. App'x 417 (6th Cir. 2003) |
| Holding | |
| A state university's admission policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because its ranking system gave an automatic point increase to all racial minorities rather than making individual determinations. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas |
| Concurrence | O'Connor, joined by Breyer (in part) |
| Concurrence | Thomas |
| Concurrence | Breyer (in judgment) |
| Dissent | Stevens, joined by Souter |
| Dissent | Souter, joined by Ginsburg (in part) |
| Dissent | Ginsburg, joined by Souter, Breyer (in part) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XIV | |
Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), was aUnited StatesSupreme Courtcase regarding theUniversity of Michigan undergraduateaffirmative actionadmissions policy. In a 6–3 decision announced on June 23, 2003,Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the Court, ruled the University's point system's "predetermined point allocations" that awarded 20 points towards admission to underrepresented minorities "ensures that the diversity contributions of applicants cannot be individually assessed" and was therefore unconstitutional.[1] It was thecompanion case toGrutter v. Bollinger.
The University of Michigan used a 150-point scale to rank applicants, with 100 points needed to guarantee admission. The University gave underrepresented ethnic groups, includingAfrican-Americans,Hispanics, andNative Americans, an automatic 20-point bonus towards their score, while a perfect SAT score was worth 12 points.[2]
The petitioners, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher, both residents ofMichigan, applied for admission to theUniversity of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA). Gratz applied for admission in the fall of 1995 and Hamacher in the fall of 1997. Both were subsequently denied admission to the university. Gratz and Hamacher were contacted by theCenter for Individual Rights, which filed a lawsuit on their behalf in October 1997.
The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against the University of Michigan, the College of LSA, James Duderstadt, andLee Bollinger. Duderstadt was president of the university while Gratz's application was under consideration, and Bollinger while Hamacher's was under consideration. Their class-action lawsuit alleged "violations and threatened violations of the rights of the plaintiffs and the class they represent toequal protection of the laws under theFourteenth Amendment... and for racial discrimination."
LikeGrutter, the case was heard in District Court, appealed to theSixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and asked to be heard before the Supreme Court.
It has been argued by some that Jennifer Gratz lackedlegal standing to bring this action. Gratz applied in 1995, three years before the University of Michigan adopted its points system. Gratz could not claim injury as a result of the points system, and thus, under traditional legal rules, Gratz lacked standing. Gratz chose not to attend the University of Michigan by declining the university's offer to be placed on a waiting list. Every Michigan student who agreed to go onto the waiting list in the spring of 1995 was admitted to the University of Michigan for the Fall 1995 semester.[citation needed] However, Gratz argues that she did fill out the paperwork for the waiting list, but the University claims it got lost.
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the court. The court's majority found that Gratz and co-plaintiff Hamacher had standing to seek declaratory and injunctive relief, relying onNortheastern Fla. Chapter, Associated Gen. Contractors of America v. Jacksonville, 508 U.S. 656 (1993). Here the "injury in fact" necessary to establish standing in the case was the denial of equal treatment resulting from the imposition of the barrier, and not in the ultimate inability to obtain the benefit.
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The court held that because the university’s use of race in its current freshman admissions policy was notnarrowly tailored to achieve the respondents' asserted interest in diversity, the policy violated the Equal Protection Clause.
Justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg dissented. Ginsburg wrote that "government decisionmakers may properly distinguish between policies of exclusion and inclusion...Actions designed to burden groups long denied full citizenship stature are not sensibly ranked with measures taken to hasten the day when entrenched discrimination and its after effects have been extirpated."[3]
