Media Contacts
Press Line
Tel. (+1) 212-573-5128
Fax (+1) 212-351-3643
office-of-
communications@fordfound.org
Fiona Guthrie
Media Relations Chief
Tel. (+1) 212-573-4825
Joe Voeller
Press Officer
Tel. (+1) 212-573-4821
Ford Foundation Grantees Helped to Win Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Affirmative Action and Gay Rights and a New York School Funding Ruling
June 30, 2003—In rulings last week the United States Supreme Court signaled the critical value of affirmative action in higher education (upholding the University of Michigan Law School's admissions system) and the fundamental right to privacy (striking down a Texas law criminalizing consensual sexual activity between same-sex couples).
On June 26, the New York State's highest court ruled that the method of financing New York City's public schools violates the New York State Constitution.
These landmark decisions reaffirm the Ford Foundation's values of social justice and bolster continuing work for racial, sexual and economic equality. In all three cases, foundation grantees played significant roles, from litigation to research to educating policy makers and the public. For more information, see links to some of the grantees' Web sites:
Affirmative Action
The litigants included the University of Michigan (www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions), the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (www.naacpldf.org/home/) and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (www.maldef.org/).
The Right to Privacy
The litigants included the Lambda Legal Defense Fund www.lambdalegal.org and the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project (www.aclu.org). The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (www.ngltf.org) has also played an important role in repealing state sodomy laws.
Financing for New York City's Schools
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a Ford Foundation grantee, brought the case on behalf of low-income schools and students. For more information on this landmark case, visit www.cfequity.org.
Related Reading:
Ten Percent in Texas
We Need Affirmative Action
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.