Hunter by Brandt v. Regents of the University of Cal.

• Decision Date: 20 June 1997
• Docket Number: No. CV 95-3301 KN.,CV 95-3301 KN.
• Citation: 971 F.Supp. 1316
• Court: U.S. District Court — Central District of California
• Parties: Keeley Tatsuyo HUNTER, a minor, by Gina F. BRANDT, her mother and next friend, Plaintiff, v. The REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA and Theodore R. Mitchell, Defendants.

971 F.Supp. 1316

Keeley Tatsuyo HUNTER, a minor, by Gina F. BRANDT, her mother and next friend, Plaintiff, v. The REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA and Theodore R. Mitchell, Defendants.

No. CV 95-3301 KN.

United States District Court, C.D. California.

June 20, 1997.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

James K.T. Hunter, Los Angeles, CA, Mark T. Gallagher, Pacific Legal Fund, Sacremento, CA, for Plaintiffs.

Dennis M. Perluss, Morrison & Foerster, L.L.P., Los Angeles, CA, Jeffrey A. Blair, University of California, Oakland, CA, for Defendants.

TRIAL ORDER RE: FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

KENYON, District Judge.

Plaintiff Keeley Tatsuyo Hunter, ("Hunter" or "Plaintiff"), a minor, brings this action by Gina F. Brandt ("Brandt"), her mother and next friend, against defendants The Regents of the University of California ("the Regents") and Theodore R. Mitchell, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies ("GSE & IS") and Vice Chancellor of Academic Planning and Budget at the University of California, Los Angeles ("Dean Mitchell"). Having previously granted the defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings as to Plaintiff's first and third causes of action,¹ the Court conducted a two-day bench trial on Plaintiff's remaining claims. Based on the evidence and arguments presented at trial, the Court sets forth its findings of fact and conclusions of law as follows:

I. PARTIES AND JURISDICTION

Hunter is a female child born on November 26, 1990. She is a United States citizen who claims her ethnic identity as one-quarter Asian and three-quarters Caucasian. This suit is brought on Hunter's behalf by her mother and next friend, Brandt.

The Regents is a corporation vested with legal title and the management and disposition of the property of the University of California, with the power to be sued, as provided by Section 9, Article IX of the California Constitution. The Regents receive substantial federal financial assistance and, for the purposes of this suit, admit to being a state actor.

Dean Mitchell is currently Vice Chancellor of Academic Planning and Budget at UCLA, and remains Dean (on leave) of the GSE & IS. Dean Mitchell was Dean of the GSE & IS during the 1995-96 admissions cycle during which the Plaintiff's application to the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School ("UES"), which is operated by the GSE & IS, was submitted and denied. Dean Mitchell is sued solely in his official capacity.

Hunter brings this action against the Regents under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d,² and against Dean Mitchell under 42 U.S.C. § 1983³ based on the defendants' alleged illegal and unconstitutional acts of discrimination. Federal jurisdiction is proper under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367 in that the instant action arises under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Venue is proper in this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b) in that all parties reside in the Central District of California and a substantial portion of the events giving rise to the Plaintiff's claims occurred in this District.

II. HISTORY OF THE CASE

UES is a laboratory elementary school operated by UCLA's GSE & IS. UES has a student population of approximately 460 children, ages four through twelve, who attend pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.⁴ The stated mission of UES is to conduct research relevant to the urban educational experience and to work with teachers, communities and schools to disseminate that research to foster a more effective educational system primarily for urban elementary students.⁵

On or about December 12, 1994, Plaintiff's mother Gina F. Brandt signed, and Plaintiff's father, James K.T. Hunter, authorized Brandt to sign on his behalf, the 1995-1996 Admissions Application seeking their child's admission to the 1995-1996 UES entering class for four-year-olds (the Early Childhood or EC-1 Program). Brandt submitted the application form for consideration to UES. Plaintiff was one of 215 applicants for admission to the 1995-1996 EC-1 Program, 46 of whom received admission. In the section of the Admissions Application entitled "Child's Ethnic Identity (optional)," Plaintiff was identified by Brandt as "Asian-American (specify): Japanese" and "Caucasian." Unfortunately, Plaintiff's parents were notified on March 11, 1995, that their daughter had not been selected for admission to the 1995-96 EC-1 class. As a result, Plaintiff brought the instant suit challenging the constitutionality of UES's admission policy.

By order filed on September 18, 1995, this Court granted Hunter's application for a preliminary injunction requiring her admission to the 1995-96 EC-1 class. Hunter is currently enrolled in her second year at UES, essentially kindergarten.

On July 25, 1996, the Court ruled that Dean Mitchell is entitled to the defense of qualified immunity to Plaintiff's claim for damages. See Order Re: Def. Theodore Mitchell's Mot'n for Summ. Adjud., July 29, 1996, at 9:4-16. In a separate order dated the same day, the Court granted the Regents' motion for summary judgment against Plaintiff's claims of discrimination based on the admission criteria of wealth, fame, and political influence. See Order Re: Def. Regents Mot'n for Summ. Judg., July 25, 1996, at 10:6-12.

Subsequently, on August 21, 1996, the Court denied Plaintiff's motion for summary adjudication of the legal issues in her remaining claim that UES's race/ethnicity admission criteria violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that factual issues remained as to whether the use of race/ethnicity in the admissions process (1) serves a compelling state interest, and (2) is narrowly-tailored to accomplish this goal. These issues — framed as Plaintiff's Title VI claim against the Regents and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against Dean Mitchell — are all that remain of the current action.

III. FINDINGS OF FACT

A. UES's Admission and Recruitment Policies

The UES Admissions Committee is comprised of three UES teachers and two GSE & IS faculty members, one of whom serves as the committee chairperson. The admission process does not entail pre-selection interviews, achievement/ability testing or competitive criteria rankings of the applicants.

As part of its admission policy, UES does not consider the race of its applicants for the purpose of enhancing the educational opportunities of disadvantaged children admitted to the school; nor does UES consider its applicants' ethnicity to improve the general educational experience for the admitted students by promoting diversity in the classroom. In addition, the Admissions Committee does not consider race or ethnic background as a remedy for past societal discrimination. Rather, UES considers its applicants' races and ethnic identities only in an attempt to obtain an adequate cross-sample of the general population for the purpose of maintaining the scientific credibility of its educational studies. Students enrolled at UES are research subjects and are covered by all federal, state and university guidelines, rules and policies regarding the treatment of human subjects.

To achieve the ethnically diverse population of students allegedly necessary for its educational research program, UES conducts extensive recruiting and outreach programs designed to increase the number of minoritY and disadvantaged applicants. Such outreach efforts include advertising in local newspapers with large minority readership, distribution of information about UES to the directors of other ethnic studies programs at UCLA, and dissemination of thousands of mailers and flyers to UCLA campus departments, current UES parents, and offcampus organizations such as Head Start Centers.

B. 1995-96 EC-1 Class Admission Policy and Statistics

For the 1995-96 school year, the Admissions Committee utilized the following procedure in selecting applicants for admission to the EC-1 Program:

First, the 20 siblings of current UES students who applied for admission were identified and admitted;⁶

Second, the Admissions Committee, under the guidance of Dean Mitchell and Professor Stipek, formulated a target number for each racial/ethnic group to be admitted;

Third, dominant Spanish-speaking applicants were identified and a number of them were selected for admission;⁷ Fourth, applicants from each self-identified racial/ethnic group were chosen at random to create a shorter list of potential admittees;⁸

Fifth, from the children randomly selected within each racial/ethnic classification, further sorting was done to ensure a reasonable gender balance and to distribute the admitted children among income groups.

UES also admits a limited number of children each year, in the discretion of the Dean of the GSE & IS, to further the mission of UES and to advance the interests of UCLA, including recruiting faculty and staff for the University. In the 1995-96 admission year, these "Dean's admits" were substituted for randomly-selected children with the same gender, race/ethnicity and income as would have otherwise been granted admission.

In selecting students to be admitted to the 1995-96 EC-1 Program, UES sorted all applicants into six racial categories: African-American, Asian-American, Native American, Latino, Caucasian, and Other (Mixed Race). The demographic racial breakdown of the 215 children who applied for admission into the 1995-96 EC-1 Program, as self-reported, was as follows: 110 Caucasians (51.2%); 49 mixed race (22.8%); 23 African-Americans (10.7%); 19 Asians (8.8%); and 14 Latinos (6.5%). The demographic racial breakdown of the 46 children admitted into the 1995-96 EC-1 Program was as follows: 10 Latinos (21.7%); 6 African-Americans (13%); 4 Asians (8.7%); 18 Caucasians (39.1%); and 8 mixed race (17.4%).

The pool of 215 applicants consisted of 110 girls and 105 boys. Twelve (12) girls were siblings and eight (8) boys were siblings. As previously mentioned, all 20 of the sibling applicants were admitted. Tw...