George Washington [attorney, By Any Means Necessary]: "On November 7, 2006, Proposal 2, which is copied from California's Proposition 209, passed in Michigan by a vote of 57 to 43 percent. There are now two pending legal challenges to the Proposal, with more expected to follow soon. The United States District Court found that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative obtained the signatures necessary to place the proposal on the ballot by means of racially-targeted voter fraud. But it refused to take the proposal off the ballot because the MCRI defrauded some white people as well. The Sixth Circuit will soon hear an appeal from that decision, with the plaintiffs asking for the entire proposal to be struck down because of the fraud.

The By Any Means Necessary Coalition filed the second lawsuit the day after the election asserting that the federal civil rights laws, the Equal Protection clause, and the First Amendment rights of universities preempted the substance of Proposal 2.

There will also be further legal challenges on the basis that affirmative action is not a "preference," which is all that Proposal 2 bans."