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Missourians won a major victory in the fight for fairness and equal opportunity today when the so-called Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI) failed to qualify for the November ballot. One of a series of ballot proposals California businessman Ward Connerly has spearheaded across the country, the MoCRI aimed to eliminate affirmative action programs that help to open doors to opportunity for countless people of color and women, and the initiative faced strong on-the-ground opposition. The  ACLU filed an amicus brief in a legal challenge that sought to ensure that the MoCRI ballot language would notify voters of the initiative's impact on affirmative action, and joined with WeCAN MO - a coalition of faith groups, community and labor organizations, students, and businesspeople - to educate voters about the true intent of the MoCRI.
Read the press release from the ACLU of Eastern Missouri>>
Connerly blames his loss on voter educators: "thugs" and "stalkers">>
Learn about the legal challenge to Connerly's deceptive ballot language >>

Equal Opportunity Foes Move to Pull Own Petition in Oklahoma, Calling It a Waste (4/4/2008)
Equal opportunity foes were dealt a blow last Friday when the proponents of an anti-affirmative action initiative in Oklahoma filed a motion to withdraw their own proposal, stating that the measure likely did not have enough valid signatures to make it onto the ballot. Proponents of the so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative—backed by millionaire California businessman Ward Connerly and his so-called American Civil Rights Institute—were put on the defensive when local civil rights advocates, in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, began looking into the OKCRI’s fishy signature-gathering process earlier this year.
>> Read more about the ACLU's efforts to preserve the democratic process in Oklahoma.

"Mythbusters" Series Debunks Affirmative Action Myths Former ACLU Ira Glasser Fellow Kimberle Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum have created a 13-part series, " Affirmative Action: A Public Policy Under Seige," which provides radio  listeners and visitors to AAPF.org with a guided tour of the current controversy about affirmative action. Each section explores a widely held belief or assertion about affirmative action and, upon closer inspection, each belief is shown to be false, distorted, or unsupported by the evidence.

More information on affirmative action myths and the radio series >>

The website includes clips from radio segments originally aired on the Michael Eric Dyson Show. The clips offer information, research and personal accounts from a range of commentators, including academics, activists and every day people.

ACLU President Nadine Strossen and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discuss the high court's rulings in affirmative action cases Air America's Rachel Maddow and MSNBC's Tucker Carlson talk about the effectiveness of affirmative action laws

Opponents of Equal Opportunity Seek To Withdraw Their Own Ballot Measure (04/08/2008)
NEW YORK - In a significant blow to a national campaign against equal opportunity in America, backers of a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would end equal access and opportunity programs in the state have asked the state supreme court to withdraw the measure from consideration. The move comes after supporters of the so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative - spearheaded by Ward Connerly's American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) as part of a national crusade against affirmative action - failed to collect the signatures needed to get the proposal on this November's ballot. In conceding defeat, Connerly characterized the ACRI's efforts in Oklahoma as a "miscalculation."

ACLU of Oklahoma Challenges Anti-Civil Rights Ballot Measure (03/07/2008)
OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma voters filed a protest today before the state Supreme Court challenging irregularities and questionable practices in the collection of signatures by the so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative. The initiative is one of a series of anti-affirmative action ballot measures that California businessman Ward Connerly and his organization known as the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) have spearheaded across the country.

ACLU, NAACP File Lawsuit to Allow University of Michigan Admissions Programs to Continue (12/19/2006)
DETROIT - Filing a lawsuit today on behalf of 19 students, faculty and applicants to the University of Michigan, a coalition of civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, are asking a federal court to declare that the newly passed Proposal 2 has not changed the Supreme Court’s view, stated as recently as 2003, that it is constitutionally permissible for universities to consider race and gender as one factor among many in university admissions.

The African American Policy Forum Teams with the Michael Eric Dyson Show for a Groundbreaking Radio Series (11/02/2006)
DETROIT -- As Michigan counts down to the November 7 vote on whether to end affirmative action in the state, Kimberle Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum and Professor of Law at University of California Los Angeles and Columbia University and American Civil Liberties Union Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow has inaugurated a 13-part radio series on the Michael Eric Dyson Show. In this unprecedented series, entitled "13 Myths About Affirmative Action: A Special Series on a Public Policy Under Seige" Professor Crenshaw and a bevy of guests will join host Michael Eric Dyson to cut through the jargon surrounding this hot-button issue and get beyond the myths associated with it to help to educate voters about affirmative action and Proposition 2.

ACLU Lauds Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Upholding University's Affirmative Action Policies (06/23/2003)
NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the Supreme Court's decisions today upholding the principle that public universities may continue to use affirmative action to ensure a diverse student body.

Affirmative Action - ACLU position paper (08/25/2000)

Missouri Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative: Secretary of State's Appeals Court Brief (04/08/2008)
The petition considered in this case is one of a series of anti-affirmative action initiatives being forwarded in 5 states for the fall of 2008, but was deceptively billed by its sponsors as a ban on "discrimination" and "preferences." In this brief, Missouri's Secretary of State explains her reasons for amending the initiative's title to highlight its potential impact on affirmative action programs designed to improve opportunities for and eliminate discrimination against women and minorities. The brief urges the appeals court to reject the trial court's revision of the SOS's title.

Oklahoma Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative: Proponents' Motion to Withdraw (04/04/2008)
In this motion, the proponents of the deceptively named Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative ask to withdraw their own measure, stating that they "do not want to waste... taxpayer money on [the initiative] when Movants are reasonably certain that it will fail to garner the requisite number of signatures." Signatures submitted in support of the initiative were called into doubt by the Secretary of State and were under scrutiny by the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund, representing a coalition of Oklahoma citizens that expressed concern over the OCRI's deceptive practices.

Cantrell v. Granholm Decision (03/18/2008)
The ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense fund and others filed suit against Michigan's Proposal 2, a ban on affirmative action, in December of 2006. A federal judge dismissed the suit.

Oklahoma Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative: Signature Challenge Complaint (03/07/2008)
Complaint challenging the sufficiency of signatures submitted in favor of an anti-affirmative action initiative in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative: Secretary of State's Report on Signatures (02/07/2008)
Proponents of the so-called Oklahoma "Civil Rights" Initiative submitted signatures in support of their petition in December of 2007. In this report to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the Secretary of State notes an "unprecedented" number of irregularities, including signature-gatherers signing their own petitions multiple times.

We Won't Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action -- Anthony Romero (03/04/2002)
Anthony Romero has spent the morning shepherding potential philanthropists through a Manhattan housing court. He wants them to see the scene: children crying in the halls, benches full of poor people waiting, a mother telling a judge about backed-up sewage in her apartment, one eviction case after another. Here are the individual faces of poverty in the city, revealing obvious human need coupled with the stark inability of the judicial system to meet that need. Romero explains his analysis of what would make life better for those tired mothers and their children; what interventions could make a difference. It takes money, he concludes. Not just charity, but funding for the kinds of programs that enable people to help themselves.

Fast Facts About Affirmative Action and the So-Called "Civil Rights" Initiatives (04/04/2008)
This fact sheet, a joint project of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, ACLU Human Rights Program and the African American Policy Forum, debunks common myths about affirmative action and provides basic information about the deceptive "civil rights" initiatives being forwarded in 5 states this fall 2008. Learn more about the most common myths about affirmative action at www.aapf.org/focus.

Striving for Equal Opportunity: Why the ACLU Supports Affirmative Action (03/21/2008)

Grutter v. Bollinger (02/20/2003)
DECIDED
This case challenged the use of affirmative action in the University of Michigan's law school admissions process. The Court upheld the constitutionality of narrowly tailored race-conscious affirmative action programs that further the compelling interest of diversity.

Gratz v. Bollinger (02/18/2003)
DECIDED
This case challenged the use of affirmative action in the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions process. Though this particular program was struck down, the Court upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action in order to further the compelling interest of diversity.

Oklahoma Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative (03/07/2008)
A challenge in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma to the certification of signatures submitted in support of an anti-affirmative action initiative.

Missouri Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative (07/26/2007)
Challenges to the title and description of a misleading ballot initiative that seeks to ban affirmative action in Missouri. The cases were rendered moot when backers of the initiative failed to garner enough signatures to make it to the ballot.

Colorado Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative (07/16/2007)
A challenge to a misleading, far-reaching anti-equal opportunity measure in Colorado. The petition considered in this case is one of a series of anti-affirmative action initiatives being forwarded in 5 states for the fall of 2008, and is deceptively billed by its sponsors as a ban on "discrimination" and "preferences."

Cantrell v. Granholm (12/19/2006)
A federal judge dismissed this lawsuit, which challenged Michigan's Proposal 2. Prop 2 amended the state constitution to bar the consideration of race, sex, ethnicity or national origin in public education, employment and contracting, and has been cited as the basis for dismantling affirmative action and other race- and gender-conscious programs in public institutions throughout the state.