Against Individualized Consideration

Abstract

Are Cubans Hispanic? According to trial testimony cited by Justice Kennedy in his dissent in Grutter v. Bollinger, at least one University of Michigan Law School admissions officer concluded that they were not-at least for the purposes of the school's affirmative action policy. Cubans, as everyone knows, are Republicans.' Whether this hearsay was accurate, evidence of admissions officers attempting to define Hispanic was present in several places in the Grutter record. Other trial documents revealed that the admissions preference given to Hispanics extended to Puerto Ricans born on the United States mainland, but not to those born on the island itself. The University of Michigan Law School's admissions bulletin also singled out Mexican Americans as requiring "special attention" in the admissions process, despite the formal policy's reference to Hispanics generally. Opponents of the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action policy cited these distinctions to underscore the race-conscious bankruptcy of the school's policy, emphasizing the district court's finding that "there is no logical basis" for the school's choice of the "particular racial groups which receive special attention" from the admissions office.