"A potentially historic step"

Contact: Adriana Barajas-Dazo, 916-444-2278

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 21, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Ward Connerly, president of the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) and author of the nation's first law banning the use of racial preferences in the college admissions process, said, "The Supreme Court took a potentially historic step today when they agreed to review the unconstitutionality of including race in the college admissions process."

"Institutions of higher education have used the pursuit of 'diversity' as a legitimate excuse to discriminate, sanctioned by the highest court in the land."

Connerly, a former University of California Regent, helped pass the California Civil Rights Initiative in 1996 by a margin of 55% to 46%. 
 
Washington, Michigan, Nebraska and Arizona each passed a Civil Rights Measure, and this year Oklahoma is poised to become the sixth state to do so. ACRI's educational efforts in Florida influenced then Governor Jeb Bush to sign an executive order forbidding racial preferences. In January, the New Hampshire legislature passed a law banning affirmative action.

"The pursuit of diversity has overwhelmed the principle of merit, a fact that cripples America in global competition.  Worse still, the pursuit of diversity is inherently and blatantly unfair. Low income Vietnamese children, for example, are being held to significantly higher requirements than middle and upper income black kids. This is a national disgrace and must come to an end."

The American Civil Rights Institute is a national civil rights organization created to educate the public on the harms of racial and gender preferences.  www.ACRI.org