U. Michigan case to be re-examined

AUSTIN, Texas -- The U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner plans to look into allegations of judicial misconduct in the Grutter vs. Bollinger affirmative action case.\nIn a letter addressed to Chief Judge Boyce Martin of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sensenbrenner demanded court papers from the case be turned over to his office for review by 5 p.m. Thursday. \nJeff Lundgren, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, said the court has complied.\n"We have heard from the 6th Circuit, and they are cooperating," Lundgren said.\nThe court ruled 5-4 on May 14 that the University of Michigan's law school admissions policy, which considers race as one of many factors for admission, is legal.\nSensenbrenner, however, in letters to Chief Judge Martin and the Honorable Leonidas Ralph Mecham, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, expressed concern that the judicial procedures may have improperly influenced the case.\nSensenbrenner's letter claims that Judge Martin improperly substituted himself for another judge and failed to circulate the appellee's petition for initial hearing en banc, in which the court would meet as a whole. Also, during the delay, two judges achieved senior status and no longer heard cases.\nJulie Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Michigan admissions department, expressed support for the court's ruling.\n"We are very pleased with the decision; it was appropriate under the law, and we support it," she said.\nSensenbrenner said he believed that the judges removal affected the court's ruling. \n"The participation of those judges on the panel could have reversed the outcome of the case," Sensenbrenner's letter stated. \nIf the case were to go to the Supreme Court, its affirmation could overturn cases in which race-based admissions were ruled illegal, such as the Hopwood v. Texas case at the University of Texas.\nUT law professor Douglas Laycock, the Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law, said the case should not affect the University unless it is taken up by Supreme Court.\n"They are likely to take it. It isn't a sure thing, but it is likely," he said. "If the Supreme Court affirms the decision, then Michigan wins, and we win, too."\nMichigan's admissions policy was modeled after that of Harvard Law School, which uses race as a factor in acceptance, and was recognized by Justice Lewis Powell as the ideal method of promoting diversity in a university's student body. \nAfter the Hopwood ruling, African-American and Hispanic applicants to the University's law school dropped by 38 percent and 22 percent, respectively, according to the UT graduate school Web site.