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Propositioning the States

Ward Connerly's 2008 campaign.

May 7, 2007, Vol. 12, No. 32 • By JENNIFER RUBIN
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If Ward Connerly has his way, on Election Day 2008 no fewer than five states will host referenda to bar racial preferences in public college admissions, employment, and contracting. If the measures succeed, Connerly explains in an interview, "we will be witnessing the end of an era" in which racial, ethnic, and gender preferences have been used to promote "diversity" and the social advancement of women and minorities.

Envisioning a repudiation of the "diversity rationale," Connerly says that "we're going to abbreviate the 'twenty-five years.'" He's referring to the following statement from Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote in Grutter v. Bollinger, the 2003 Supreme Court decision permitting race to be used as one of many factors in university admissions, "Twenty-five years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary."

"Ward has played a crucial role in providing a face with which to identify the campaign against preferences," says Michigan State University professor William B. Allen. As a member of the University of California Board of Regents, Connerly championed the 1995 referendum ending the state's racial admissions preferences. In 1996, Connerly guided passage of Proposition 209, repealing California's racial preferences in public school admissions, employment, and contracting. He led a similar measure in Washington state.

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