The University of Michigan considers race in deciding which students to accept because diversity improves the education of all its students, the school's lawyer told an appeals court Thursday.

        “In order to achieve that broad diversity, we need to take ethnicity and race into account,” John Payton told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

        Mr. Payton said the university considers race among other factors including academic achievement and economic status. The university's policies do not exclude anyone, he said.

        But opponents of the university's use of affirmative-action policies said they can amount to illegal discrimination against white applicants who may have better academic qualifications.

        David Herr, the lawyer for white plaintiffs challenging Michigan's undergraduate admissions policies, said the university appears to be using race-conscious policies to try to correct years of discrimination against blacks and other minorities.

        “The remedy for that is not having more discrimination — discrimination in the admissions office,” Mr. Herr told the court.

        The court heard two hours of arguments from lawyers in two consolidated lawsuits that contend Michigan's law school and undergraduate admissions policies discriminate against whites in favor of less-qualified minorities.

        The nine appeals court judges — seven whites and two blacks — are to rule later. A three-judge panel of the court was to have heard the dispute Oct. 23, but the court agreed to bypass that usual first step.

        Now, whichever side loses could ask the Supreme Court to consider an appeal.

        Under a 1978 Supreme Court decision, universities may not use racial quotas but may consider race as a factor in selecting students.

        Several other federal appeals courts that have ruled in similar cases from California, Texas, Georgia and Washington state have reached conflicting conclusions.

        Advocates on both sides of the Michigan dispute say it could ultimately be the first one accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

        “It squarely presents the issue of whether diversity is a compelling reason for a state to consider race in providing educational opportunities for students,” said Verna Williams, an assistant law professor at the University of Cincinnati.

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