District Lawyers Respond to Affirmative Action Ruling
Angel Wilson
Issue date: 6/26/03 Section: NEWS
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"I don't consider it a real victory for affirmative action," he said. "It appears that the person in the admissions office or the administration could decide how important black students are in a university at their own discretion. The mere fact that the ruling came out the way it did was a surprise to some because it's a majority conservative court."
Shabazz, a D.C. lawyer and Black Panther Party leader, was stung by Clarence Thomas's vote. Thomas, the only black judge on the Supreme Court, voted against it. Thomas quoted the words of Frederick Douglass to justify scraping affirmative action, saying "...if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also."
Shabazz was not surprised.
"It's painful to us as black people to have one of our own with such a tight court consistently ruling against the interest of his own people," he said.
Michael Howard, a second year law student at Howard University, said that while he is "very happy" with the law school ruling, "people are so busy trying to fight affirmative action that it never gets to flourish." Howard said that while affirmative action sounds good in theory, when used in reality, it is misused.
"In practice, it just boils down to quotas," he said. "The objective is to give those who normally wouldn't get a chance" to attend majority white colleges a chance.
Kim Fields, a political science doctoral student, said, "its not like you can just go in there and be anybody" getting in. "That's where equity comes in. I don't think affirmative action was ever set up to put less qualified people in positions."
Richard Lazarus, a professor at Georgetown University's Law School, said that "people are quite pleased" with the decision.
The decision, he said, "confirms the constitutionality of what most law schools have been doing," which is looking at applicants individually. The undergraduate decision, according to Lazarus, should not have significant bearing.
Fellow Georgetown law professor Michael Seidman said the decision is "a complete victory for affirmative action."
"Plans [dealing with law schools] are likely to be upheld," Seidman said. As far undergraduate schools following quotas, Seidman said the schools need to "go back and redraft."
Howard University law professor Okianer Christian Dark was a little more optimistic with the decision.
"There was a victory for affirmative action," she said. "However, I hope that we will not become complacent, and think the battle for affirmative action has been won. You can expect those who have been opposed to it will continue to fight. We must be vigilant."
Shabazz agreed. "We have to seriously look at what it will take to supplement our own black schools, black law schools, black colleges." With majority white colleges now , "there really is no guarantee."
Contact Angel Wilson at district_chronicles@hotmail.com.