MCRI Upheld!

The Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) is constitutional.  The MRCI banned racial discrimination in government hiring and college admissions.  Of course, the US Constitution and Civil Rights Act already don't allow this.  But liberals were ignoring this to support 'affirmative action' to discriminate against whites and asians.  Thus the MCRI was needed.

The bogus claim against the MCRI was that it discriminated against minorities since it made it harder to enact a policy they support.  First of all, there is no one minority position on affirmative action, as many minorities, from Thomas Sowell to Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas oppose racial preferences.  Further, it is far from obvious that racial preferences actually help minorities, since (particularly in college admissions) they lead to mismatching and higher minority dropout rates.

Setting that aside, the argument is still bogus.  Michigan's Constitution was amended in the usual manner.  Supporters had to convince a majority of the public to the MCRI, opponents had to convince a majority to oppose it.  The supporters won 58-42, despite being significantly outspent.  They beat everyone on the left, plus the Chamber of Commerce, Dick DeVos, and significant chunk of the Republican establishment.  Further, the MCRI could be repealed using the same exact process--convincing a majority of the public to repeal it.  But that won't happen, since the public doesn't like racial preferences.

Thankfully, BAMN's attempt to get unelected judges to overrule Michigan's voters failed.