By David Li, bostonese.com
San Jose, Calif., April 22, 2014, — The Supreme Court has upheld Michigan’s affirmative action ban today. The Supreme Court ruling stated that Michigan voters had the right to change their state constitution to bar public colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette speaks to reporters after arguing the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in October. He’s with XIV Foundation CEO Jennifer Gratz, who was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy (photo from npr.org).
In a 6-2 ruling, the majority justices said that a lower federal court was wrong to set aside the change as discriminatory. The ruling affirms that the state has the right to determine whether racial preferences can be considered in college admissions.
Many Chinese Americans in Silicon Valley areas feel this ruling is good for California’s existing affirmative action state constitution ban. On Jan. 30, 2014, CA State Senate passed Senate Constitution Amendment 5 (SCA5) with support of the two thirds super majority from Democratic senators. Protests against SCA5 were erupted across California by Asian Americans, and SCA5 was returned to the Senate on March 17 by House Speaker Mr. Perez.
“I read the decision to be leaving the issue in the hands of the voters. In other words, the battle is not in the court any more; it is up to the voters of individual states to decide whether Affirmative Action has a place in college admission policies,” a user commented on a popular Chinese social website wenxuecity.com.
Volunteers from Silicon Valley Chinese Association (SVCA) have worked hard to encourage its members and Asian American voters to register to vote before the May 19 deadline for the June 3 state primaries. Some SVCA members even changed their Facebook profile picture to the image above to remind people about the deadline for voter registration. A surge of voter turnout by Asian Americans is expected on June 3.