Portland observer., June 03, 1976, Page 3, Image 3

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Portland Observer
Thursday. June 3. 1976
Page 3
Reverse discrimination’ faces new court descision
by Martin Faaaler
| M artin Paasier prartirea law in San
Pranriaro, handling mostly labor and
employment dlarrimination rases. He has
written on legal affairs for both Pari fir
News and Juris Dortor, a law magazine in
which a longer version of this article also
appears. |
SA C R A M E N TO I l ’ NS)
Allan Bakke
is a tall, blond. 36 year old NASA
engineer who claims his hopes of bccom
ing a doctor have been frustrated because
he is white.
In a case that could eventually topple
current university “special admission"
programs for the disadvantaged, Bakke is
challenging the University of California
at Davis' medical school special admis
sions policies
which he says discrimi
nut» against whites.
Bakke's case, now before the California
Supreme Court, spotlights the already
bitter issue of "reverse discrimination”.
But it also raises the underlying problem
that spurred the rise of special admis
sions programs: How best to bring
urgently needed medical, legal and other
professional services to non white, most
ly low income communities throughout
the nation, especially in the person of
non white professionals.
W ith only one Black physician for
every 4,300 Black people in the U.S., as
compared to the national physician pu
tient ratio of one for every 630 persons
land similar ratios for lawyers).
Such needs are already widely ac
knowledged.
But even advocates of
change sharply disagree as to the merits
of the special admissions approach.
Reverse discrimination was first raised
before the Supreme Court in 1974, after
white law school applicant Marco l)e
Funis filed suit against the University of
Washington.
DeFunis. who had been
ordered admitted while the court con
sidered the case, was so close to gradua
lion when the final decision neared that
his rase was declared moot.
But the
DeFunis rase stirred great passions
among college administrators and stu
dents, civil rights groups and organized
labor.
Even usually firm allies split over 'he
racial quota issue. While the AFL-CIO
and the Anti Defamation League of the
B'nai B'rith filed court briefs opposing
special admissions program s, for in ­
stance, the United Auto Workers and the
N atio n al Council of Jew ish Women
argued in their favor.
B A K K E VS. REG ENTS
The rase of Allan Bakke vs. the Re­
gents of the University of California
began just three months after the Su
preme Court’s 1974 DeFunis derision.
After being turned down twice for
udmission at the Davis medical school in
1973 and 1974 despite excellent grades
and two degrees in previous schooling
Bakke filed suit in Yolo county court
alleging that the university's special
admissions program for economically and
educationally disadvantaged applicants
had violated his 14th amendment rights
to due process.
The university asked the court to
declare its s|»-rial admissions program
constitutional.
While both parents lost the first round
the court ruled the program unconsti­
tutional but refused to admit Bakke
because other more highly qualified ap
plicants had been turned down before
him
each appealed the case to the
California Supreme Court.
The state
supreme court heard oral arguments on
the case last March and is expected to
issue an opinion this summer.
During these oral arguments, Bakke's
lawyer, Reynold Colvin of San Francisco,
told the court, "I do not think people
should get points by reason of ancestry.”
Colvin said he and his client did not
oppose all affirmative action programs,
but suggested "there are other steps
short of quotas, like recruiting and
tutoring."
The Davis medical school admissions
director. Dr. George Lowrey, had earlier
contended that “There would be few. J
any, Black students and few Mexican
Americans, Indians or Orientals from
disadvantaged backgrounds in the Davis
Medical School, or any other medical
school, if the special admissions program
and similar programs at other schools did
not exist." In 1968, Davis Medical School
enrolled no Black or Chicano students, for
example, though Blacks and Chicanos
represent twenty percent of the state's
population.
Most of the nation's medical and law
schools, in fact, have adopted special
admissions procedures of one kind or
another in response to pressures by
student and civil rights groups.
About 130 o, the 150 accredited law
schoools in the U.S. have formal pro­
grams or at least give special considers
tion to applicants who are "economically
disadvantaged." Slightly more than 100
of the nation's medical schools have
affirmative admissions programs, indud
ing almost all the prestige schools.
Proponents of such programs contend
that the normal medical and law school
admissions procedures based on a fairly
inflexible numbers game of college grade
averages and test scores - are not
accurate indicators of how m in ority
group students will perform if admitted.
According to Davis admissions director
Ixjwrey. special admissions students at
tain virtually the same scores as regular
admissions students on national exams
after four years of medical school. Yet
these same students had scored signifi
canlly lower than the regular admittees
on Ibeir undergraduate grade averages
and their Medical College Admissions
Tests (MCATs).
The widespread use and weight given
to the MCATs and the analogous Iz w
School Aptitude Tests (LSATs) have
come under increasing attack in recent
years.
Critics contend they measure
easily learned skills, rather than innate
talent or potential for medical or legal
study.
Even the Educational Testing Service,
which administers both exams, admits
that an applicant's score is likely to
increase by many points on a second or
third testing.
LEGAL DEBATE
The legal debate in the Bakke case
swirls around the “equal protection"
clause of the 14th amendment.
To pass constitutional muster if chal­
lenged under the 14th amendment, a
state law that makes distinctions among
people must be judged to have a "rational
basis.” Certain bases for such distinc
lions
including race
are "suspect
classifications" that deserve "strict scru­
tiny,” and may be used only for a
"compelling state interest.”
Proponents of special admissions pro
grams argue that the Constitution per
mils the law to be color conscious for the
purpose of eliminating the results of past
and current discrimination
a “compell
ing state interest." Opponents argue that
the Constitution requires colorblindness
here as in other rases.
"Racial classifications run contrary to
the very foundations of American so­
ciety," Bakke’s lawyers argued before the
state supreme court. “The ultimate fact,"
they continued, “is that the rategoriza
tion of individuals by race is not benign.
W IMI .« IVA» » *
i V / iK U l
but an evil heretofore recognized by the
judicial system."
In defense of its Task Force program,
the university argued that it should be
judged by the "rational basis" test. The
needs of society, it contended, "are not
best met by a medical profession which
continues to count in its ranks only a tiny
percentage of minority physicians."
In making their decision in the Bakke
case, several of the seven California
supreme court justices indicated they
may place heavy emphasis on the views
of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
William O. Douglas. He wrote after the
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support to ensure that these subsidies
are not reduced.
The health of 25 million Black Ameri
cans affects all Americans, the noted
physician believes. He contends that "In
view of the present cost of illnesses
including the millions of lost hours of
work, the billions of dollars spent on
welfare for the victims of ill health, the
added billions spent for alcohol related
illnesses and accidents the cost of what
I have suggested is triffling."
Proposals are being sought by the
Portland Area Office of the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Dc
velopment from private developers or
public housing agencies to take part in
the Section 8 Housing Assistance-
Payments Program.
The Portland Area Office plans to
subsidize 260 units of newly constructed
or proposed re h a b ilita tio n housing
throughout the Portland SMSA area of
Clackam as, M u ltn om ah , W ashington
Counties in Oregon and Clark County in
Washington. One hundred units will be
for low income families, and one hundred
sixty units for the elderly and/or handi­
capped persons.
Director Russell H. Dawson of the
Portland Area Office announced that he
has advertised for proposals to be re­
ceived at the H U D Portland Area Office
by July 21, 1976.
The Section 8 portion of the 1974 Act
replaces other forms of Federal assis
tance for low income rental housing.
Successful developers will be offered a
contract under which the Department of
Housing and Urban Development will
agree to pay that portion of the agreed
monthly rental which the low income
tenants cannot afford to pay.
The
successful developers will own and man
age the units. Included in their manage
ment responsibilities will be the need to
determine the eligibility of prospective
tenants to be assisted under the program
and the rent paying ability of those
tenants.
Developers or public agencies inter
ested in making proposals should contact;
the Portland Area Office, Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
A speech and hearing clinic can test
your baby's hearing when he or she is
only a few months of age, so don't wait
until the child is two or three years old.
The child whose hearing loss is detected
early has a much better chance of
learning to overcome his or her handicap.
Almost all hearing impaired children can
learn to use the hearing they do have and
can be taught to speak and lipread.
For a free checklist, "W hat Does Your
Baby Hear?" send a stamped, self ad
dressed envelope to Hearing Alert, 286(1,
8.E. Holgate Boulevard, Portland 97202.
9.99-23*88
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Hearing check
Every year in this country, thousands
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that their child has a hearing loss until
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Health problems drain energy HUD seeks
housing
proposals
"For too many Black patients, health
care is a luxury which must wait until the
moment when pain and weakness no
longer allow them to drag another step,"
writes Dr. Charles S. Ireland, director of
the H o w ard U n iv e rs ity H o sp ital in
Washington, D.C.
In an article called "The Health Woes
of Blacks" appearing in the June issue of
Header's Digest, Dr. Ireland identifies
the Four Horsemen of the Black com
munity as alcoholism, malnutriton, hy
pertension and mental disturbance. Call
ing hypertension "the most serious health
problem of Blacks in America today," he
(mints out that about one in four Blacks
over the age of eighteen has it; over the
age of forty the ratio rises to two out of
five. The mortality rate from high blood
pressure in Black males is 15*/i times the
rate for white males between ages 25 and
44. Hypertension kills Hlack females at
seventeen times the rate for white
females.
"Day after day, in the emergency
rooms and wards of our hospitals, 1 see
evidence that the medical problems of
Blacks are more acute, more complicated
and more neglected than those of other
Americans," he declares.
To remedy the double standard of
health rare which has created these
desperate conditions. Dr. Ireland calls for
education. “Education of more Black
doctors, of Blacks, of the public." He
urges higher quotas for Blacks in medical
schools, government subsidy to prepare
qualified medical students and see them
through their training, and white political
DeFunis rase that he believed admission
quotas in state supported schools were
impermissible because they favored eth
nic minorities but that sole reliance on
college grades and board scores for law
school admissions discriminated against
non whites.
"The key to the problem,” Douglas
wrote, "is consideration of such applies
tions in a racially neutral way. Abolition
of the L S A T would be a start."
If Bakke wins and is later upheld by the
U.S. Supreme Court, pressure to develop
such a new "racially neutral” admissions
process is sure to mount.
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