The Law

Disclaimer: Normally, I am not much of a history/economic/court case fan who gets interested in that sort of stuff...however, in my Law and Economics class, we are reviewing various court cases that have been addressed in the Supreme Court. One of the cases I found to be extremely interesting was Grutter v. Bollinger held in 2003. This was a landmark case in which the US Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School. Basically, Barbara Grutter was a women living in Michigan, possessing a 3.8 GPA and fairly high test scores. She was not accepted into the University of Michigan, despite her high qualifications. Grutter filed an injunction against the University in 2007, claiming that minority candidates who possess worse academic records and qualifications are accepted solely due to their race or ethnicity. She believed the school accepted minority candidates over her, even though the individuals had received worse grades than her. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the University of Michigan, saying there was no way to prove that the school accepted or preferred candidates based on their race or ethnicity. As this is the time of year the senior class is hearing back from colleges they applied to, I thought this court case was extremely interesting and very relatable. What if someone I was close to had a high GPA, great test scores, great qualifications, participated in out of school activities, but was declined to their top choice of University of Delaware solely because they are a caucasian Delaware resident. But, someone who did not work as hard as them in highschool and fooled around was accepted because they are qualified due to their ethnicity and out of state admission. Something to think about....