Bush details opposition to affirmative action program
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Calling it "fundamentally flawed," President Bush announced Wednesday his opposition to an affirmative action program at the University of Michigan that targets minority students.
"I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education," Bush said at the White House. "But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed."
Bush called it a "quota system" that rejects or accepts students "based solely on race."
The president said his administration would file a brief Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the university's affirmative action program, which helps African-American, Hispanic and native American students.
Bush's action immerses the administration in a politically and socially charged subject at a time when Republicans are trying to recover from a racially tinged firestorm in the Senate and reach out to minority voters.
Earlier Wednesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer suggested the administration would draw a distinction between using race as "a" factor as opposed to "the" factor in making admissions decisions.
"I didn't say that President Bush said race should not be a factor," Fleischer said in an exchange with reporters. "I referred earlier to the factor."
Fleischer made clear the president's opposition to racial quotes, even as he affirmed the administration's commitment to diversity. "The president believes that quotas and racial preferences do not serve to lift up our country and help the average American," he said. "Instead they have a tendency to divide people."
The move by the administration was being closely watched on Capitol Hill by Democrats who say Republicans have failed to encourage racial diversity.
Former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt -- who has announced his candidacy for the White House in 2004 -- said he would file a court brief in support of the university's affirmative action program. Gephardt, D-Missouri, graduated from the University of Michigan Law School.
When he was governor of Texas, Bush opposed racial preferences at state universities, opting instead for a program he calls "affirmative access," under which the top 10 percent of all high school students are eligible for admission.
'A watershed moment'
In the University of Michigan case, white students opposed to the program filed suits against the school. One lawsuit challenged the affirmative action program at the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and another lawsuit challenged admissions policies using race at the law school.
The Supreme Court's decision will be key in defining the role of affirmative action in America.
Conservatives have been arguing that it is important for the administration to take a stand against racial preferences.
A senior administration official said Solicitor General Ted Olson sent an e-mail to the White House arguing for a strong brief opposing the Michigan program and racial preferences in general.
But it is a politically sensitive issue for the president and Republicans who have been trying to reach out to minorities, especially in the wake of the controversy surrounding Sen. Trent Lott's comments praising Sen. Strom Thurmond's segregationist 1948 presidential bid.
Many civil rights activists also have been angered by the president's judicial nominees, most recently that of Charles Pickering, a Mississippi judge renominated to a federal appeals court. They've described Pickering as racially insensitive and questioned his commitment to civil rights.
The White House does not have to file a friend of the court brief, but it is common practice in high-profile cases.
The brief is due at the Supreme Court by Thursday.
Senate Minority Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, told reporters Wednesday that how the administration weighs in will be "a watershed moment" for Republicans on the question of diversity.
"I think the burden of proof will be on the administration, I think the burden of proof will be on Republicans to show us how they can be for diversity and yet be against the laws that promulgate diversity," Daschle said. "That, I think, is a hard case to make, but I look forward to their response."
-- White House Correspondents John King and Dana Bash, and Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena contributed to this report.