Facts of the case...

This case began in 1996 when the University of Michigan Law School rejected Barbara Grutter. She was a white Michigan resident who had a 3.8 grade point average and a score of 161 on her Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). She contacted the Center for Individual Rights. The Center for Individual Right filed a suit on her behalf in December of 1997. They sued, saying that the school’s action was in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was said that the Law School rejected Barbara Grutter because it used race as a main factor, which gave applicants of a minority race with similar credentials a greater chance at admission. The defendant was Lee Bollinger, who was the President of the university. He worked toward the purpose of achieving racial diversity in the student body.

“Plaintiff Barbara Grutter is a white resident of the state of Michigan who applied at the age of 43 in December 1996 for admission into the fall 1997 first-year class of the University of Michigan Law School. She applied with a 3.8 undergraduate grade point average and an LSAT score of 161, representing the 86th percentile nationally. The Law School first placed Ms. Grutter on the "waitlist," and subsequently denied her admission. Ms. Grutter has not enrolled in law school elsewhere. She still desires to attend the Law School. The Law School admits that Ms. Grutter probably would have been admitted had she been a member of one of the racial minority groups to which the Law School gives a preference. (Comments of Law School counsel during oral argument).”

(http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/02-241/02-241.pet.html)


The case first went to the U.S. District Court, to be heard in front of Judge Bernard A. Friedman. He ruled that the admissions policies were unconstitutional. The case was next taken to the Sixth Circuit court of Appeals in May 2002. This court reversed the decision. This led to the plaintiffs requesting that the Supreme Court review the case, which the Supreme Court agreed to. The Court had not heard a case on affirmative action in education for 25 years, during the Bakke decision.