Denied admission on grounds of incorrect skin color

	"I ASKED THEM WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF SHE HAD NOT REVEALED HER RACE ON HER APPLICATION. IF, CONSIDERING HER FIRST NAME, SHE HAD BEEN TAKEN FOR BLACK, WOULD SHE -- GIVEN HER ACADEMIC RECORD AND CHARACTER -- HAVE BEEN ADMITTED? THE DEAN SAID SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN." NAT HENTOFF THE WASHINGTON POST

CIR's lawsuit opposes the University of Washington's policy of using race as a factor in determining who to admit to its law school.

Under the tenure of Dean William Loh, UW introduced a rigorous set of preferences intended to bring more minorities into the school. The school met its goal: in 1994, the year Smith was rejected, the law school completed a diversity program that had increased minority enrollment to 43% from the 1989 level of 17%.

The diversity program, as the University would later admit, involved lowering the bar for minority applicants. Somone with Katuria Smith's qualifications would have been immediately accepted if she had not been white.

Read more:

Nat Hentoff. "Law school needs reminder about law." Rocky Mountain News, May 11, 1998.

Nat Hentoff. "Katuria Smith goes to Court." The Village Voice, July 8, 1998.

Nat Hentoff. "When the ACLU supports discrimination." The Village Voice, July 15, 1998.

"Numbers Bind." Wall Street Journal (Editorial), September 3, 1998.

Robyn Blumner. "Law school sets narrow definition for diversity." St. Petersburg Times, September 6, 1998

A diverse background

Katuria Smith was born when her mother was only 17, was reared in poverty, and dropped out of high school. From the time her parents divorced when Smith was 11, she lived "hand to mouth" and moved between twelve jobs, detailing cars, cleaning floors, and doing anything else she could get.

"I was desperate to get out of poverty," Smith told columnist Michelle Malkin. So when Smith was 21, she enrolled in night classes at a community college paralegal program. Holding down jobs during the day, she graduated and enrolled in the University of Washington, where she earned a business degree in 1994. With her 3.65 GPA and LSAT score of 165 (94th percentile), she fully expected to be admitted. Instead, she was rejected with no chance to appeal. Smith filed suit in 1997.

She was joined in her case by Angela Rock, a 1995 in-state UW Law applicant who had gotten her undergraduate degree at the school. Rock was rejected from Washington but, on the merit of her 3.65 GPA and 165 LSAT, was immediately accepted by Vanderbilt, Georgetown, UCLA, and the University of Colorado. The third plaintiff is Michael Pyle, who earned a 3.15 GPA at Duke and scored a 97th percentile 168 on his LSAT.

Read more:

Michelle Malkin. "Diversity rhetoric can't hide UW's discriminatory policy." The Seattle Times, March 11, 1997.

Heath Foster and Ruth Schubert. "Two UW Law School Applicants, Two Paths." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 15, 1998, p. A1 (.pdf file)

Muddying the waters

The shape of the Smith case changed in 1997 when the Washington Policy Center began a drive for a ballot initiative to end racial preferences in Washington State. Inspired by the Smith case and the columns of Nat Hentoff, the Center drafted a measure based on the succesful California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209) of 1996. I-200, as the Washington measure was called, was approved by 58% of the state's voters in 1998.

Overnight, affirmative action became illegal in Washington State. UW was forced to alter its admissions policy and dismantle its system of racial preferences. Much of the work was done, but CIR continued to seek damages for the plaintiffs.

Read more:

Ethan Bronner. "University complies with anti-affirmative action initiative." The New York Times, November 7, 1998

Eric Feigenbaum. "I-200 deflates suit against Law School." The Daily, University of Washington, February 12, 1999

Pyhrric defeat

Since the passage of I-200, UW has turned to legal methods of encouraging minorities to enroll, while continuing to defend its abandoned system. It argued its case before the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and on December 4, 2000, the court ruled that race could be used as one of many factors in admissions to achieve an intellectually diverse student body. The decision had no bearing on the law in Washington State, but it allowed CIR to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The petition that CIR filed on behalf of Smith, Rock, and Pyle asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether diversity was a compelling interest that could justify racial preferences. On May 29, 2001, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Thus, the 1978 Bakke decision, which the 9th Circuit relied on, remains the most recent High Court ruling on affirmative action.

Read more:

Associated Press. "Court: Race Legal in Admissions." New York Times, December 4, 2000

Marcia Coyle. "Supreme Court may revisit Bakke landmark." Fulton County Daily Report , January 18, 2001

Curt Levey. "Diversity of trial." National Review Online, June 11, 2001

What now?

Smith, Rock and Pyle are still seeking damages for the discrimination they suffered.

 

Smith Press releases

CIR press release (March 6, 1997)

 

CIR press release (November 13, 2000)

 

CIR press release (January 31, 2001)

 

CIR press release (February 20, 2001)

 

CIR press release (April 8, 2002)