A conflict of principles : the battle over affirmative action at the University of Michigan / Carl Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Carl, 1931-2023, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

University of Michigan.

Discrimination in higher education--Law and legislation--Michigan.

Discrimination in higher education.

Universities and colleges--Admission--Law and legislation--Michigan.

Universities and colleges.

Affirmative action programs in education--Law and legislation--Michigan.

Affirmative action programs in education.

University of Michigan--Trials, litigation, etc.

Affirmative action programs in education--Law and legislation.

Universities and colleges--Admission--Law and legislation.

Discrimination in higher education--Law and legislation.

Michigan.

Physical Description:

vii, 302 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, 2014.

Summary:

""No state. shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." So says the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, a document held dear by Carl Cohen, a professor of philosophy and longtime champion of civil liberties who has devoted most of his adult life to the University of Michigan. So when Cohen discovered, after encountering some resistance, how his school, in its admirable wish to increase minority enrollment, was actually practicing a form of racial discrimination--calling it "affirmative action"--he found himself at odds with his longtime allies and colleagues in an effort to defend the equal treatment of the races at his university. In A Conflict of Principles Cohen tells the story of what happened at Michigan, how racial preferences were devised and implemented there, and what was at stake in the heated and divisive controversy that ensued. He gives voice to the judicious and seldom heard liberal argument against affirmative action in college admission policies. In the early 1970s, as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union, Cohen vigorously supported programs devised to encourage the recruitment of minorities in colleges, and in private employment. But some of these efforts gave deliberate preference to blacks and Hispanics seeking university admission, and this Cohen recognized as a form of racism, however well-meaning. In his book he recounts the fortunes of contested affirmative action programs as they made their way through the legal system to the Supreme Court, beginning with DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974) at the University of Washington Law School, then Bakke v. Regents of the University of California (1978) at the Medical School on the UC Davis campus, and culminating at the University of Michigan in the landmark cases of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003). He recounts his role in the initiation of the Michigan cases, explaining the many arguments against racial preferences in college admissions. He presents a principled case for the resultant amendment to the Michigan constitution, of which he was a prominent advocate, which prohibited preference by race in public employment and public contracting, as well as in public education. An eminently readable personal, consistently fair-minded account of the principles and politics that come into play in the struggles over affirmative action, A Conflict of Principles is a deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution to our national conversation about race"-- Provided by publisher.

"Carl Cohen, a left-wing philosophy professor at the University of Michigan who had long fought for civil rights and individual liberty, strongly believed that racial justice can only be attained in a society that is color-blind and that does not operate on the basis of quotas related to race, gender, religion or ethnicity. These beliefs lead Cohen to become a strong opponent of affirmative action in higher education, a battle that divided him from his normal allies on the left and that was waged in part at the university with which Cohen has been associated for over 50 years. In this book he tells the story of how he came to be a strong opponent of affirmative action in university admissions policies and the battles he fought at Michigan"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 How It All Began 1

2 Bakke and the Rise of Diversity 8

3 From The Nation to Commentary 14

4 From Washington to Berlin and Beyond 19

5 Naked Racial Preference 23

6 The University of Michigan Comes into Focus 27

7 Confrontation 36

8 Pulling Teeth 44

9 Revelation 48

10 Further Revelations 59

11 What Was I to Do? 65

12 Point of No Return 70

13 On to the Federal Courts 78

14 The Climate of Opinion at Michigan 92

15 The Reading Room 101

16 Moving Targets 109

17 Intervenors 118

18 The Thin Line between Permissible and Impermissible 133

19 128 Honorary Degrees and a Coat Check 137

20 The Heart of the Trial: 257 to 1 145

21 Vindication 151

22 Petitions Don't Decide Lawsuits 157

23 Why It Smelled Funny 166

24 Back on the Home Front 171

25 Some Personal Questions 180

26 Preparing for the Big Event 185

27 The Big Event 195

28 The End of Litigation 204

29 From Legal Battles to Political Battles: The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Is Born 215

30 Defending the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative 228

31 The Constitution of Michigan Amended 247

32 Race Preference at the University of Texas 250

33 Race Preference in Michigan Is Permanently Ended 257.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0700619968

9780700619962

0700620435

9780700620432

OCLC:

880374867

Publisher Number:

99961151173