Action-packed

Jackson rallies supporters

DAVID KATZ/Daily

Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks yesterday in the Law Quad as part of the Day of Action as Law School Dean Jeffrey Lehman and others look on.

By Rachel Green

Daily Staff Reporter

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says there are only three important issues in the upcoming presidential election: "The Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court."

Speaking to a group of about 300 students in the Law Quad yesterday, Jackson stressed that this year's choice for president of the United States will determine what views will be represented on the Supreme Court - specifically those relating to affirmative action.

"There is something joyous about this occasion in watching America come alive," Jackson said, urging University students to vote Nov. 7. "We must have the most massive voter turnout the world has ever seen."

Urging students to carefully weigh the merits of the two candidates, Jackson pushed hard for Democrat Al Gore while criticizing Republican candidate George W. Bush for his lack of experience.

"Bush, his resume begins at 45" years old, Jackson said.

Praising Gore for choosing Joe Lieberman, the

Jewish senator from Connecticut, as his running mate, Jackson said, "Lieberman represents progress for the whole America."

Despite common perceptions about affirmative action, Jackson said it is not only a matter of race.

"It's about patterns of exclusion based upon gender, race, sexual orientation or physical disability, which makes affirmative action a majority, not a minority, issue," he said.

"Once you get beyond just defining it as race, you begin to see that politically we begin to gain the momentum," Jackson told The Michigan Daily after his speech. "America has benefited from more people of color and more women being trained."

Law Dean Jeffrey Lehman spoke after Jackson about the powerful impact that Jackson's speech had on the pending lawsuit against the Law School.

Two lawsuits were filed in 1997 against the University by the Washington D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights challenging the use of race as a factor in admissions at the Law School and the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts.

"The litigation is a defining moment for this law school and for this university," Lehman said.

"The principal claim of the plaintiffs in the litigation is that we as a public institution ought to be colorblind in our admissions process, even though American society is not colorblind," he said. "I want to say today that that is not the law of the United States."

Jackson has taken a deep interest in the lawsuits and the fate of affirmative action at the University.

"This law school, which has been so broad-based in its output, is now threatened by the suit," Jackson said.

Engineering senior Kyle Kentala, who attended the speech, said she came to because affirmative action is a national issue and Jackson is a nationally recognized figure who is well-versed on the subject.

"The biggest message anyone could get out of this is to get out and vote," said Kentala, a member of the campus' Defend Affirmative Action Party.

"It's not a matter of voting exactly like Jesse Jackson," she said. "Make that decision on your own."