Nebraska voters back affirmative action ban

[Wild Bill]

Published Wednesday November 5, 2008

 

Nebraska voters back affirmative action ban

 

BY MATTHEW HANSEN

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

 

The voters have spoken, banning affirmative action in Nebraska.

 

Now the Nebraska Supreme Court might get its say.

 

With legal uncertainty over the petition drive that pushed Initiative 424 onto the ballot, the vote signifies the middle — not the end — of the fight to bar minority scholarships and other traditional race- and gender-based affirmative action programs.

 

Nebraska voters approved the constitutional amendment by a comfortable margin, sending California businessman Ward Connerly and the amendment's other backers into celebration mode shortly after polls closed.

 

The constitutional amendment bars public agencies such as universities and city governments from considering race, gender and ethnicity when handing out contracts, hiring employees and awarding scholarships.

 

Doug Tietz, director of the Connerly-backed Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, said the victory proved that Nebraskans want to judge people on their merits, not on their skin color.

 

"Democrats, Republicans, independents — they can agree that the government shouldn't be playing politics based on race and gender," Tietz said. "That's the message of tonight. Nebraska believes that equality before the law is not only the state motto, it should also be enshrined in the state's constitution."

 

Initiative 424's opponents think the vote could harm university attempts to lure minority students and might end a City of Omaha program that pushes some subcontracting work to small female-owned and minority-owned businesses. They also think it sends a bad message — that Nebraska isn't a welcoming place for minorities.

 

But David Kramer, the director for Nebraskans United, which opposed the ballot measure, said he holds out hope that a Lancaster County District Court judge soon will declare the petition drive — and therefore Tuesday's vote — invalid.

 

"I still think it's a very significant likelihood that tomorrow or the next day, we're going to get a ruling in our favor," he said.

 

At issue is whether fraud allegedly committed during the petition drive is enough to render Tuesday's results moot.

 

Connerly and his supporters contend that any fraud was isolated and shouldn't affect the vote. They point out that the Secretary of State's Office deemed 136,589 petition signatures valid, some 24,000 more than needed to put the measure on the ballot.

 

Kramer believes he has ample evidence of petition gatherers misleading signers about what Initiative 424 would do. If a petition gatherer committed some of those illegal acts, then all the signatures he or she gathered should be thrown out, he argues.

 

Judge Karen Flowers is expected to rule on the case soon. Either side could appeal to the state's highest court.

 

Kramer acknowledged that some voters would be frustrated if the courts invalidated the election results.

 

"But if people want to amend the State Constitution, they should follow the laws," he said.

 

Meanwhile, the University of Nebraska will start reviewing its programs that might violate the ban, said NU President J.B. Milliken.

 

University leaders and lawyers will soon decide: Is a University of Nebraska-Lincoln girls math camp now illegal? Is a Cultural Day at the University of Nebraska at Kearney OK because it lets white students attend? Is a black leadership conference at the University of Nebraska at Omaha doomed?

 

NU also must delete references to race, ethnicity and gender in its scholarships.

 

"What's going to change is some of the tools we have to promote diversity," Milliken said. "What's not going to change is our commitment. . . . We think diversity is important to prepare our students . . . and it's incumbent upon us to provide educational opportunity to as many Nebraskans as possible. That doesn't change."

 

What might change is the legality of Initiative 424. Its supporters vow to continue fighting to ensure it becomes Nebraska law.

 

"The people have spoken," Tietz said. "That's what America is about. Now it's time to put this into the Constitution."

[General Blackshirt]

If people seriously think that the banning of affirmative action means "Nebraska doesn't accept minorities" then they are just plain dumb. I hope this goes through and isn't reversed, like it mentioned. It's dumb.