Vote on ban looking unlikely for November

Sunday, April 18, 2004

The petition drive to put a ballot issue before Michigan voters to ban affirmative action programs at universities and other public agencies appears to be at a standstill while its backers await the outcome of legal challenges.

"There's no question right now that we are dead in the water," said state Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, who is co-chairman of the steering committee for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI).

Campaign leader Ward Connerly said Friday he remains committed to the effort to put the issue before Michigan voters. The University of California regent successfully pushed that state's Proposition 209 banning the consideration of race and gender in public employment, education and contracting.

"I have been involved with several statewide campaigns," Connerly said. "There hasn't been one where there haven't been a host of problems."

The fate of the group's petition drive to get an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot is in the hands of the Michigan Court of Appeals. State Attorney General Mike Cox has appealed an Ingham County judge's order that the Board of State Canvassers' rescind its approval of the petition.

The board has since rescinded its approval because of the order, but said it wants Cox's appeal to continue. The board's approval isn't needed to begin a petition drive, but state election officials must approve a petition and its signatures before an initiative can be placed on the ballot.

Leonard Schwartz, an Oakland County attorney and MCRI's treasurer, wrote last week in an online newsletter of the Libertarian Party of Michigan that the campaign was suspended while backers await court rulings. Campaign manager Tim O'Brien left his position earlier this week.

"I'm confident that MCRI will get on the ballot a constitutional amendment to reduce racial preferences by the government," Schwartz wrote. "But it probably won't be in 2004."

Schwartz said a final court decision could take months. He noted that MCRI is facing a July 6 deadline to gather the nearly 320,000 valid signatures necessary to get the proposal on the fall ballot.

"After careful consideration of the situation, MCRI decided that continuing the petition drive now would be a waste of time and money," Schwartz said. "MCRI is temporarily suspending the petition drive until litigation over the petition language is over."

Even if efforts are dropped this year, Schwartz said, the petition drive will start anew next year.

The ballot proposal would ban public schools and agencies from granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.

The petition effort came after the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision last June that the University of Michigan Law School could consider race to create a diverse student population. At the same time, the court struck down the university's undergraduate policy for ensuring a mix of students as too formulaic, and university officials revised the policy last fall to include a more comprehensive review of each application.