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 1978 in the so-called Bakke case, the Supreme Court ruled universities have a compelling state interest in promoting diversity that allows for the use of affirmative action. That issue involved a reverse discrimination claim by a white man denied admission to law school.

The issue in recent years is whether and when affirmative action programs would eventually have to be phased out as the goal of obtaining diversity is met.

The Supreme Court is considering whether the University of Texas' admissions practices aimed at creating campus diversity violate the rights of some white applicants.

Washington said he hopes that the Supreme Court takes the Michigan case. He said he hopes that if it rules against the ban, it also would strike down some other states' rules against affirmative action, such as those in California that do not allow race considerations in college admissions.