Goal of Proposed Michigan Initiative: Ban on Racial Preferences
by Jim Brown
January 15, 2004
(AgapePress) - A new ballot initiative proposal in Michigan would outlaw racial and gender preferences.The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative would bar governmental entities, including public universities, from granting preferential treatment to any citizen based on their race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin. Republican State Representative Len Drolet says the initiative was spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling upholding the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action admissions policy.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the UM Law School's effort to achieve "diversity" in the student population was a sufficiently "compelling governmental interest" to allow a state to engage in discriminatory practices -- even though they violated the 14th Amendment at first glance.
Drolet says the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the University of Michigan case reminds him of another decision made by a branch of government: the 1915 vote by Congress to deny women the right to vote -- a right which Drolet points out women were able to win later on.
"The best parts of American history have been the parts where we have come together and treated people as individuals, not as parts of a group or discriminated against people based upon how they look or their gender," the lawmaker says.
Drolet says his measure ensures everyone is viewed equally under the law -- something he says is a critical aspect of civil society. He predicts that opponents of his measure will have a difficult time.
"Our opposition will have their hands full trying to convince people that treating people differently based upon how they look is okay," he says, "and that lumping people in a group based on their skin tone and then giving them different benefits or taking away benefits because of that is somehow fair."
By July 16, Drolet's group must collect 319,000 valid signatures of registered voters in Michigan in order to put the proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot in November.
