A federal judge gave three public universities in Michigan until the middle of 2007 before they must comply with Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment to ban affirmative-action preferences that state voters approved in November, The Detroit News reported.

The institutions — Michigan State and Wayne State Universities and the University of Michigan — had argued that ending the use of preferences in admissions and financial-aid decisions by December 23, as the ballot measure had required, would be unfair to this year’s applicants, some of whom would be considered under the existing policies and some of whom would not. Michigan’s attorney general, who had pledged to defend the amendment in court, agreed to the delay because it contained a specific date on which Proposal 2 would take effect — July 1, 2007.

But the attorney general will get a chance to defend the affirmative-action ban after all. A coalition of civil-rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, filed suit this week to block the amendment from going into effect ever. The lawsuit contends that Proposal 2 contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding, in a 2003 case involving the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, that limited affirmative-action preferences are constitutional. The suit also argues that it’s unjust to ban racial preferences but not preferences for athletes, military veterans, and children of alumni.