US: In the biggest affirmative action case in the United States in a generation, President George Bush is expected today to challenge the University of Michigan for giving preference to minority students.
Mr Bush will submit a brief to the US Supreme Court praising the merits of diversity - but arguing that the university's approach is wrong, officials said.
If the court were to strike down the Michigan admissions policy, universities would be forced to change how they accept minorities, and critics say that affirmative action programmes in general could also be radically affected.
The Supreme Court is considering a case brought by three students alleging discrimination by the university. This has its roots in an earlier action brought by a white student, Ms Jennifer Gratz, against the university after she was rejected for a place in 1995.
Ms Gratz had a grade point average of 3.81, but a number of African American students with averages lower than 3.81 were admitted, in order to meet the university's racial enrolment goals.
The white student, along with two other applicants, sued the university for reverse discrimination and won a ruling that the admissions system was illegal, as it was discriminatory.
The university instituted instead a new system whereby black, Hispanic and native American applicants were automatically awarded a 20-point bonus on a 150-point admission scale.
A lower court judge ruled that this was "perfectly legal" and that ensuring a racially and ethnically diverse student body produced significant educational benefits and constituted a compelling governmental interest. This is now being appealed to the Supreme Court.
The university has urged the Supreme Court not to overturn its historic 1978 Bakke decision, which allows the consideration of race in university admissions.
In the Bakke case, the last attempt by the court to address affirmative action in public universities, the justices ruled that the University of California at Davis could not hold a quota of places for minorities. But, writing in the case, the late Justice Lewis Powell stated: "The goal of achieving a diverse student body is sufficiently compelling to justify consideration of race ... under some circumstances."
University of Michigan president, Ms Mary Sue Coleman, urged the court not to turn back the clock on its ability to assemble a diverse student body. "A decision reversing Bakke would severely impoverish our higher education system," she said.
The university argued that an overruling of Bakke "would produce the immediate resegregation of many and perhaps most of this nation's finest and most selective institutions".
In the aftermath of the embarrassment to the Republican Party over the Trent Lott affair, Mr Bush's decision will be taken as an indicator of his administration's commitment to widen racial equality and open higher education to minority groups. Senate majority leader Trent Lott was forced to resign after making remarks that appeared to show nostalgia for segregation.
Mr Bush campaigned against racial quotas and preferences in 2000.