April 4, 2003

Behind the Fight Over Race-Conscious Admissions

Advocacy groups working together helped shape the legal and political debate

By Peter Schmidt

Colleges are not just up against a few rejected white applicants in the national debate over affirmative action on campuses. No, the forces aligned against them are much more formidable.

The attacks on race-conscious admissions policies, which have now reached the U.S. Supreme Court in two cases involving the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, have been propelled by a network of conservative advocacy groups that share a common belief that such policies are both unconstitutional and