Presumably hoping its work won’t be noticed, on Friday, July 1, 2011, the last workday before the long, somnolent Fourth of July weekend, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a 2-1 decision, BAMN v. University Of Michigan [PDF] overturning the 2006 landslide victory of Ward Connerly’s Proposal 2—the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), which banned governmental “preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin”.
So what the radical group By Any Means Necessary (or BAMN, as it likes to call itself to emphasize the threat of violence implicit in the last four words of its name—see it in riotous action in this 2005 video) couldn’t achieve through intimidation, it was just handed by two Democratic-appointed federal judges: thwarting the democratic will of the people of Michigan.
Of course, the judges have also handed the GOP a killer issue to defeat Obama in 2012—if the Stupid Party has the courage to use it.
Just as in New Haven in the Ricci case, where the politicians tried to change Fire Department promotion rules after the test was given, the Sixth Circuit panel says that playing by the rules for amending the state constitution isn’t allowed when nonwhites don’t win.
This fundamental concept of representative democracy doesn’t seem so hard to grasp. But Republican politicians are typically terrified of doing anything for their own supporters, lest they be tarred as “racist”.
