Plaintiffs in Hopwood case to appeal

TEXAS - Plaintiffs in the affirmative action suit that ended the use of race as a factor in admissions and financial aid at Texas said Sunday they will appeal a $1 settlement issued by a federal judge last week.

A U.S. district judge ruled Friday that each of the four plaintiffs in the March 1996 Hopwood v. Texas case would receive $1, not nearly the $5 million they demanded in their lawsuit against the UT System for its affirmative action policies.

After being rejected for admission by the UT School of Law in 1992, the four white plaintiffs successfully challenged Texas's use of race as a factor in the school's admissions procedures.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court ruling in the Hopwood case - named after plaintiff Cheryl Hopwood - led Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to force the end of affirmative action practices in Texas public colleges and universities.

While the damage requests of the plaintiffs were denied, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks did award them about $776,000 in attorneys' fees and court costs.

But Steven Smith, the Austin attorney representing plaintiffs Kenneth Elliott and David Rogers, called the ruling unfair.

"Our generic response is the plaintiffs are being discriminated in the ruling for a second time," said Smith, who filed the lawsuit. "For the second time, the court found they were intentionally discriminated against on the basis of race, and yet they were not provided any meaningful relief."

"In the end, the determination of who deserves an offer of admission and who does not is left in the less-than-capable hands of people outside the academic arena - judges," he wrote.

"The court finds the law school has proved by a preponderance of the evidence that none of the plaintiffs would have been admitted to the law school under a constitutional admissions system," Sparks continued.

Rogers, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said Sunday he had mixed feelings about the settlement decision.

"I'm glad that the University of Texas had to pay some compensation for racially discriminating against people," Rogers said. "However, I'm disappointed that I won't have the chance to go to the University based on the color of my skin." Smith said his clients would probably appeal Sunday.

"We waited a year for the ruling. We really don't have time to burn," Smith said. Rogers added that he was "outraged, but not surprised" by the decision.

UT System officials haven't decided how to pay the money, UT System General Counsel Ray Farabee said Sunday.

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