Washington ( CNN ) -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to confront another high-profile challenge to affirmative action in college admissions . The justices will decide the constitutionality of a voter referendum in Michigan banning race- and sex-based discrimination or preferential treatment in public university admission decisions . The high court is currently deciding a separate challenge to admissions policies at the University of Texas , which did not involve a voter referendum . A federal appeals court last year concluded the affirmative action ban , which Michigan voters passed in a 2006 referendum , violated the U.S. Constitution 's equal protection laws . Appeals court strikes down Michigan 's affirmative action ban . It was the latest step in a legal and political battle over whether the state 's colleges can use race and gender as a factor in choosing which students to admit . The ban 's opponents say classroom diversity remains a necessary government role . `` We think this is a tremendous victory for the tens and hundreds of thousands of students who fought for affirmative action for decades , '' said Michigan attorney George Washington when the 6th Circuit ruling came out in November . He represents the By Any Means Necessary coalition that sued to overturn the ban . `` This is a tremendous day for black and Latino students in the entire country , '' Washington added . The office of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette will defend the ban when oral arguments are held in the fall . The ban `` embodies the fundamental premise of what America is all about : equal opportunity under the law , '' Schuette said . `` Entrance to our great universities must be based upon merit . '' The law was passed seven years ago with support of 58 % of voters . It was added to the state 's constitution , and bars publicly funded colleges from granting `` preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race , sex , color , ethnicity or national origin . '' Opinion : Keep affirmative action but reform it . That prompted a series of lawsuits and appeals from various groups . Michigan voters approved the ban after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that while Michigan universities could use race as a factor in choosing which students to admit , they could not make race the determining factor in deciding whether applicants are accepted . The referendum effort was led by Jennifer Gratz , who was at the center of the high court case . As a white student , she was put on the waiting list for undergraduate admission to the state 's largest university . She eventually attended another school , and became the lead plaintiff in a subsequent discrimination lawsuit . After the Supreme Court 's 2003 decision , she began a public campaign to end racial preferences in admissions . The Michigan ban also prohibits the state from considering race and gender in public hiring and public contracting decisions . But the current high court case deals only with the college admissions portion . Efforts over decades to create a diverse classroom have been controversial . The Brown v. Board of Education high court ruling in 1954 ended segregation of public schools , but sparked nationwide protests and disobedience by states who initially refused to integrate . In the 1978 Bakke case , the Supreme Court ruled universities have a compelling state interest in promoting diversity , and that allows for the use of affirmative action . That issue involved a discrimination claim by a white man denied admission to law school . Opinion : Chief justice out to end affirmative action . The Supreme Court is now considering whether the University of Texas ' admissions practices aimed at creating campus diversity violate the rights of some white applicants . Arguments were held in October and a written ruling is pending . The high court under Chief Justice John Roberts has made the issue a key part of its docket in recent years , and it could serve as a major legacy of the current conservative majority . The justices in 2007 struck down public school choice plans in Seattle and Louisville , concluding race could not be a factor in the assignment of children to schools . Those school districts had sought to use raced-based criteria to achieve diversity . The issue in recent years is whether and when affirmative action programs -- while constitutionally permissible now -- would eventually have to be phased out as the goal of obtaining diversity is met . Now-retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- who wrote the key ruling a decade ago in the initial Michigan cases -- said , `` The court expects that 25 years from now , the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today . '' The justices are now being asked once again to decide whether Michigan 's current policy meets that legal and social test . The case is Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action , Integration , and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary ( 12-682 ) . Opinion : Taking affirmative action personally .
America bans race- and sex-based discrimination in university admissions . A federal appeals court 2006 concluded the a tremendous day ban violates the U.S. Constitution 's . Attorney : `` This is a tremendous day for black and Latino students in the entire country '' State : The ban embodies the fundamental premise of what Michigan is all about .