Grutter v. Bollinger, James, Gratz, Hamacher & Others v. Bollinger & Patterson, s. 98-2009

• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
• Writing for the Court: DAUGHTREY, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which MOORE
• Citation: 188 F.3d 394
• Parties: (6th Cir. 1999) Barbara Grutter, for herself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, 98-2009 v. Lee Bollinger, et al., Defendants, Kimberly James, et al., Proposed Intervening Defendants-Appellants, Jennifer Gratz, Patrick Hamacher, and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Lee Bollinger, et al., Defendants, Ebony Patterson, et al., Proposed Intervening Defendants-Appellants. Argued:
• Docket Number: 98-2248,Nos. 98-2009,s. 98-2009
• Decision Date: 08 June 1999

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188 F.3d 394 (6th Cir. 1999) Barbara Grutter, for herself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, 98-2009
v.
Lee Bollinger, et al., Defendants, Kimberly James, et al., Proposed Intervening Defendants-Appellants, Jennifer Gratz, Patrick Hamacher, and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
Lee Bollinger, et al., Defendants, Ebony Patterson, et al., Proposed Intervening Defendants-Appellants. Nos. 98-2009, 98-2248 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT Argued: June 8, 1999
Decided and Filed: August 10, 1999

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit, Nos. 97-75928; 97-75231--Bernard A. Friedman; Patrick J. Duggan, District Judges

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Copyrighted Material Omitted

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Kerry L. Morgan, Taylor, MI, David F. Herr, Kirk O. Kolbo, Maslon, Edelman, Bormand & Brand, Minneapolis, MN, Michael E. Rosman, Center for Individual Rights, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Leonard M. Niehoff, Butzel Long, Detroit, MI, John Payton, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellees, Bollinger, Duderstadt, University of Michigan, University of Michigan College of Literature, Arts and Science.

Reginald M. Turner, Jr., SACHS, NUNN, KATES, KADUSHIN, O'HARE, HELVESTON & WALDMAN, Detroit, Michigan, Philip J. Kessler, Butzel Long, Detroit, MI, Theodore M. Shaw, Olatunde C.A. Johnson, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL FUND, New York, New York, Godfrey J. Dillard, EVANS & LUPTAK, Detroit, Michigan, Christopher A. Hansen, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION, New York, New York, Leonard M. Niehoff, Butzel Long, Ann Arbor, MI, Milton R. Henry, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Brent E. Simmons, ACLU FUND OF MICHIGAN, Lansing, Michigan, Michael J. Steinberg, ACLU FUND OF MICHIGAN, Detroit, Michigan, Patricia Mendoza, MEXICAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, Chicago, Illinois, Amalia S. Rioja, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Chicago, IL, for Proposed Intervening Defendants-Appellants.

Philip J. Kessler, Butzel Long, Detroit, MI, John Payton, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., Leonard M. Niehoff, Butzel Long, Ann Arbor, MI, for Defendant Bollinger.

George B. Washington, Miranda K.S. Massie, SCHEFF & WASHINGTON, Detroit, Michigan, for Movants-Appellants.

Before: DAUGHTREY and MOORE, Circuit Judges; STAFFORD^*, District Judge.

DAUGHTREY, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which MOORE, J., joined. STAFFORD, D. J. (p. 401), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

MARTHA CRAIG DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge.

Before us are two cases in which proposed defendant-intervenors were denied intervention under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a) and (b), in actions brought against the University of Michigan contesting the use of an applicant's race as a factor in determining admission. The appeals come from separate district courts but present similar, and in some instances the same, issues for our consideration. We have therefore consolidated the two cases for purposes of this opinion, and we find in both instances that the district courts erred in denying intervention under Rule 24(a).

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In each of the cases before the court, a group of students and one or more coalitions appeal the denial of their motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought to challenge a race-conscious admissions policy at the University of Michigan. The named plaintiffs in Gratz v. Bollinger are two white applicants who were denied admission to the College of Literature, Arts and Science.

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They allege that the College's admissions policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, 42 U.S.C. 1981 and 1983, and 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq. The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief forbidding continuation of the alleged discriminatory admissions process, and admission to the College. The intervenors are 17 African-American and Latino/a individuals who have applied or intend to apply to the University, and the Citizens for Affirmative Action's Preservation (CAAP), a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to preserve opportunities in higher education for African-American and Latino/a students in Michigan. The intervenors claim that the resolution of this case directly threatens the access of qualified African-American and Latino/a students to public higher education and that the University will not adequately represent their interest in educational opportunity. The district court denied their motion for intervention as of right, holding that the plaintiffs did not have a substantial interest in the litigation and that the University could adequately represent the proposed intervenors' interests. The district court also denied the proposed intervenors' alternative motion for permissive intervention.

The named plaintiff in Grutter v. Bollinger is a white woman challenging the admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School. Like the plaintiffs in Gratz, she alleges that the race-conscious admissions policy utilized by the law school violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, 42 U.S.C. 1981 and 1983, and 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq. Grutter seeks compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief forbidding continuation of the alleged discriminatory admissions process, and admission to the law school. The proposed intervenors are 41 students and three pro-affirmative action coalitions. As described by the district court:

[The] individual proposed intervenors include 21 undergraduate students of various races who currently attend [various undergraduate institutions], all of whom plan to apply to the law school for admission; five black students who currently attend [local high schools] and who also plan to apply to the law school for admission; 12 students of various races who currently attend the law school; a paralegal and a Latino graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin who intend to apply to the law school for admission; and a black graduate student at the University of Michigan who is a member of the Defend Affirmative Action Party.

The plaintiff opposed the motion to intervene, but the defendants, various officials of the Law School and the University, did not oppose the motion. The district court denied the motion to intervene as of right on the basis that the intervenors failed to show that their interests would not be adequately represented by the University. The district court also denied the proposed intervenors' alternative motion for permissive intervention.

DISCUSSION

The proposed intervenors in each of these cases contend principally that the district court erred by denying their motion to intervene as of right. Fed. R. Civ. P. 24 provides in pertinent part:

Upon timely application anyone shall be permitted to intervene in an action . . . (2) when the applicant claims an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action and the applicant is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the applicant's ability to protect that interest, unless the applicant's interest is adequately represented by existing parties.

In this circuit, proposed intervenors must establish four elements in order to be entitled to intervene as a matter of right: (1) that the motion to intervene was timely;

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(2) that they have a substantial legal interest in the subject matter of the case; (3) that their ability to protect that interest may be impaired in the absence of intervention; and (4) that the parties already before the court may not adequately represent their interest. See Jansen v. City of Cincinnati, 904 F.2d 336, 340 (6th Cir. 1990). A district court's denial of intervention as of right is reviewed de novo, except for the timeliness element, which is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Id. The district court held in each of these cases that the motion for intervention was timely, and the plaintiffs do not contest this finding on appeal. We will therefore...