Court Bars Use of Race In Admissions

The California Court of Appeals ruled last week that any consideration of race in college and university admissions is prohibited by the state's constitution.

Although the decision challenges a key point of the Supreme Courts 1978 verdict in the "reverse discrimination" case, Harvard professors and admissions officers said yesterday the impact of the ruling will be minimal.

"A decision of an intermediate appelate court in one state isn't very earthshaking," Archibald Cox, University Professor and counsel for the University of California in the Bakke case, said yesterday.

"The Bakke decision interprets the 14th Amendment in light of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and applies nationwide," he added.

The Supreme Court's 1978 decision came after Allan P. Bakke, a white engineer, claimed he had been denied admission to the University of California's medical school at Davis because it had reserved places for less qualified minority applicants.

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that race could be taken into account in admissions to achieve educational diversity but the California court last week called that ruling "weak and inclusive" and said it does not supercede the equal-protection clause of the state constitution.

The court cited a state Supreme Court decision saying California judges should consider U.S. Supreme Court decisions but should not follow such precedents unless they provide individual protection equal to that guaranteed by state law.

Glen A. Deronde, a white applicant who was rejected by the Davis law school in 1975, filed the lawsuit.

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David L. Evans, an admissions officer, said that even if the State Supreme Court upholds the decision, the case is really just an academic exercise.

"You'll never get the same Supreme Court that ruled in the Bakke decision to reverse itself two years later," Evans said.

"It's a process that is going to go on for many years. No one case will be definitive," Constance L. Rice, minority coordinator for the admissions office, said.

She added that even if the U.S. Supreme court supported the Appeals Court ruling, it would have little effect on Harvard admissions.

"We look at every applicant's personal legacy: religious background, ethnicity, nationality. Race is never looked at as a factor by itself, but we will always look at it as part of the individual's cultural package," she said