Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
Why do you think the Rice felt the need to offer a public opinion on the University of Michigan case?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030117/ts_nm/bush_court_race_dc_5
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), the highest ranking African-American in the White House, said on Friday that race could play a role in college admission policies, putting her partly at odds with President Bush (news - web sites) in a politically charged legal case.
Reuters Photo
Acting on orders from Bush, who consulted at
length with Rice, a former provost at Stanford University, political adviser Karl Rove, White House counsel Al Gonzales and others, Justice Department (news - web sites) lawyers have urged the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) to strike down a University of Michigan program that favors minorities.
Their brief took the side of three white students who are challenging the university's system of racial preferences as unconstitutional discrimination. It has sparked a storm of criticism from Democrats in Congress and civil rights leaders.
In an effort to strike a moderate balance, Bush tried to walk a fine line between his broad denunciation of "quotas" and his commitment to addressing racial prejudice. The legal brief applies only to the Michigan program.
"I agree with the president's position, which emphasizes the need for diversity and recognizes the continued legacy of racial prejudice and the need to fight it," Rice said in a written statement.
But, she added: "I believe that while race-neutral means are preferable, it is appropriate to use race as one factor among others in achieving a diverse student body."
In an interview later with American Urban Radio Networks, Rice sought to further clarify her personal view, saying there were circumstances "in which it is necessary to consider race as a factor among many factors" in diversifying colleges.
"And so, I have been a supporter of affirmative action that is not quota-based and that does not seek to make race the only factor but considers race one among many factors," she said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) sidestepped the crucial question of whether Bush himself believed that race should ever be a factor at all in the college admissions process.
'A VISION AND A GOAL'
"What the president is saying is, he as president is setting a vision and a goal for the country, and that is that diversity on our college campuses is an important goal to achieve," Fleischer told reporters.
"He is saying the manner in which the University of Michigan, by giving students 20 points on the basis of the color of their skin and only 12 points, for example, on having a perfect SAT score, is the incorrect way to achieve the goal of diversity."
Bush did not mind Rice coming forward with her personal opinion.
"The president welcomes the views of his staff and appreciates her efforts to promote diversity and aggressively reach out to people from all walks of life," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
With his denunciation of two Michigan admission programs, Bush is appealing to his conservative supporters, who fiercely oppose race-based preferences. And, by backing the general principle of diversity, the president and his Republican party are hoping not to alienate the minority voters they have been courting in advance of Bush's re-election effort in 2004.
In the landmark 1978 "Bakke v. Board of Regents" decision, the Supreme Court allowed race to be used by public universities in deciding which students to accept. In another part of the Bakke decision the high court struck down racial quotas in school admissions.
The White House brief did not ask the court to overturn the Bakke ruling.
"The president's judgment was that because he wants to promote diversity as a goal without quotas, the president made the decision to file a narrowly tailored brief that would not test the outer edges of constitutionality," Fleischer said.
The University of Michigan said its law school's admission policy had drawn support from such Republican figures as Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and former President Gerald Ford as well as from more than 30 corporations, including General Motors Corp.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030117/ts_nm/bush_court_race_dc_5
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), the highest ranking African-American in the White House, said on Friday that race could play a role in college admission policies, putting her partly at odds with President Bush (news - web sites) in a politically charged legal case.
Reuters Photo
Acting on orders from Bush, who consulted at
length with Rice, a former provost at Stanford University, political adviser Karl Rove, White House counsel Al Gonzales and others, Justice Department (news - web sites) lawyers have urged the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) to strike down a University of Michigan program that favors minorities.
Their brief took the side of three white students who are challenging the university's system of racial preferences as unconstitutional discrimination. It has sparked a storm of criticism from Democrats in Congress and civil rights leaders.
In an effort to strike a moderate balance, Bush tried to walk a fine line between his broad denunciation of "quotas" and his commitment to addressing racial prejudice. The legal brief applies only to the Michigan program.
"I agree with the president's position, which emphasizes the need for diversity and recognizes the continued legacy of racial prejudice and the need to fight it," Rice said in a written statement.
But, she added: "I believe that while race-neutral means are preferable, it is appropriate to use race as one factor among others in achieving a diverse student body."
In an interview later with American Urban Radio Networks, Rice sought to further clarify her personal view, saying there were circumstances "in which it is necessary to consider race as a factor among many factors" in diversifying colleges.
"And so, I have been a supporter of affirmative action that is not quota-based and that does not seek to make race the only factor but considers race one among many factors," she said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) sidestepped the crucial question of whether Bush himself believed that race should ever be a factor at all in the college admissions process.
'A VISION AND A GOAL'
"What the president is saying is, he as president is setting a vision and a goal for the country, and that is that diversity on our college campuses is an important goal to achieve," Fleischer told reporters.
"He is saying the manner in which the University of Michigan, by giving students 20 points on the basis of the color of their skin and only 12 points, for example, on having a perfect SAT score, is the incorrect way to achieve the goal of diversity."
Bush did not mind Rice coming forward with her personal opinion.
"The president welcomes the views of his staff and appreciates her efforts to promote diversity and aggressively reach out to people from all walks of life," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
With his denunciation of two Michigan admission programs, Bush is appealing to his conservative supporters, who fiercely oppose race-based preferences. And, by backing the general principle of diversity, the president and his Republican party are hoping not to alienate the minority voters they have been courting in advance of Bush's re-election effort in 2004.
In the landmark 1978 "Bakke v. Board of Regents" decision, the Supreme Court allowed race to be used by public universities in deciding which students to accept. In another part of the Bakke decision the high court struck down racial quotas in school admissions.
The White House brief did not ask the court to overturn the Bakke ruling.
"The president's judgment was that because he wants to promote diversity as a goal without quotas, the president made the decision to file a narrowly tailored brief that would not test the outer edges of constitutionality," Fleischer said.
The University of Michigan said its law school's admission policy had drawn support from such Republican figures as Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and former President Gerald Ford as well as from more than 30 corporations, including General Motors Corp.
