(Wisconsin Justice Initiative) -- The Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently found that a state statute and corresponding grant program for immigrants and students of color are unconstitutional.
The Higher Educational Aid Board Minority and Undergraduate Retention Program offers grants from $25 to $2500 per year to Black, Native American, and Hispanic students plus immigrants from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam admitted to the United States after 1975.
Presiding Judge Mark Gundrum wrote the lengthy opinion, joined by Judges Shelly A. Grogan and Maria S. Lazar in District 2. The decision upheld the ruling of former Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge William F. Hue.
In finding the program unlawful, the appeals court relied almost exclusively on a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard) holding that race-based affirmative action college admissions programs violate the equal protection clause. Gundrum spent 10 of the 53 pages of the opinion reiterating the high court’s decision.
“With the grant program, the legislature did not simply enact another financial aid program for all financially needy students; rather, it specifically and intentionally targeted students who were members of certain racial, national origin, ancestry and alienage groups,” Gundrum said.
The program has been in existence since 1985. The Higher Educational Aid Board said the program was designed to keep the diverse recipients from dropping out because of financial hardship—a national phenomenon that persists today.
The appeals court rejected the argument that addressing such an issue could be a “compelling state interest” as required by the legal standard for race-based laws.
When asked at oral argument whether the board had “'any case law support that says improving retention and graduation rates for certain minority groups but not others is a compelling state interest,'” the board’s counsel said they hoped “'this court issues the first opinion.'
“That is a big ask,” wrote Gundrum.
The appeals court found that the board “failed to show that improving retention/graduation rates of students in the preferred racial, national origin, ancestry and alienage groups at Wisconsin private and technical colleges or mitigating the disparity in those rates between students in the preferred groups and students in nonpreferred groups constitutes a compelling government interest.”
Gundrum quoted the U.S. Supreme Court, adding his own emphasis, saying that “’no State has any authority under the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens.”
Last Update: Mar 20, 2025 11:08 am CDT
