| (Washington, DC) - House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair James E. Clyburn, one of the House’s leading experts on affirmative action, reacts to President Bush’s decision to join the lawsuit opposing affirmative action in admitting students to the University of Michigan School of Law.
“Today President Bush has failed the American people and especially people of color. Despite the lip service he and his party have given in recent weeks to building racial unity, his latest action seeks to perpetuate the current effects of past discrimination.
“The fact is that race is one of many factors considered in admission to the University of Michigan Law School. This is a practice that has been deemed constitutionally permissible and is widespread in higher education because of the acknowledged benefits of racial diversity on our college and university campuses. It enjoys the support of many of our nation's academic and corporate leaders.
“President Bush’s decision to join this misguided attempt to resegregate our public institutions is regrettable. Although he argues that is not his intent, that is the result as evidenced by his home state of Texas. After dismantling the affirmative action programs for higher education, the University of Texas School of Law’s most recent class has only 3% minority enrollment in a state where the population is 32 % Hispanic and 11% black.
“The President succeeded in making equal opportunity in higher education an unattainable goal for many minorities in his home state. I am disappointed to learn he seeks to impose that unconscionable policy on our entire nation.
“President Bush's action today seems a throwback to the Reagan Administration’s appearance before the United States Supreme Court twenty years ago supporting Bob Jones University’s discriminatory policies and practices. President Reagan was wrong to side with discriminators then, and President Bush is wrong to side with those seeking to end the remedies for discrimination now.
“As we observe Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, President Bush should embrace the renowned civil rights leader’s 1963 message from the Birmingham City Jail that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ The University of Michigan deserves his commendations for their outstanding record in creating opportunities for all races, not a lawsuit.”
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U.S. Congressman 
