Rob Natelson and UM Comment on Supreme Court Affirmative Action

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The United States Supreme Court struck down racial and ethnic preference in college admissions in a landmark decision on Thursday.

KGVO News reached out to former University of Montana law professor Rob Natelson who now heads the Independence Institute's Constitutional Studies Center for his reaction to the decision by the high court.

Former UM Law Professor Rob Natelson Reacts to Supreme Court Decision

“There were actually two cases,” began Natelson. “One was brought against the University of North Carolina, and one was brought against Harvard University. They were sued on the grounds that their admissions policies disadvantaged both Caucasians and Asians and in favor of certain other demographic groups.”

Natelson said he and his family have personally suffered from the affirmative action form of discrimination.

Natelson said he and His Family have been Subjected to Discrimination

“I'm frankly sensitive on this issue because in my search for a job in the hiring process at universities, I was subjected to exactly this kind of discrimination,” he said. “It was open and completely frank, because I was a white male, I was given less consideration than I would have been if I had been part of an approved minority. And my father as a Jew, faced exactly the same kind of discrimination when he applied to medical school.”

KGVO News also spoke to the University of Montana Director of Strategic Communications Dave Kuntz on the school’s reaction to the decision by pointing out that Montana colleges and universities are state institutions.

“With yesterday's decision, really, it's not going to impact what happens here at the University of Montana or any of our public universities across the state of Montana,” began Kuntz. “We have never used a race-based admissions process. We're rather looking at things like GPA (grade point average). And so with the court's decision yesterday, that's certainly going to impact a lot of universities outside of our state, but here at UM, it's not going to impact anything.”

Kuntz used the opportunity to reach out to anyone who may have suffered such discrimination to look into attending the University of Montana.

UM Spokesman Dave Kuntz said Affirmative Action is not Practiced in Montana

“We still are going to maintain our mission of access,” he said. “That (the Supreme Court decision) is really going to impact the universities that limit access and use metrics such as race to make those decisions. That's something that just hasn't been done here in Montana. We just want to assure people that if you're looking at attending the University of Montana, or any other public university in Montana, yesterday's decision isn't going to have a big impact on that.”

The vote was 6-3 in the North Carolina case and 6-2 in the Harvard case.