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A White Student Finds His Place At Supreme Court Vigil

By Josef Sawyer
Black College Wire

Adan Briones lies motionless on the concrete cement in his sleeping bag, near the Supreme Court of the United States.

His face is flushed and his nose glows ruby red. Many walk over him as if he were dead, but he doesn’t dare move.

Others stop and stare, while even more take pictures of what looks to be a human figure wrapped in layers of garments. The black protesters arrived close to midnight, ready for the next day's rally and demonstration in support of affirmative action as the court hears what could be landmark cases from the University of Michigan. But others, like Brione, have been there since Sunday. He is Caucasian.

Briones welcomes the newcomers but hardly mentions that he has been in practically the same spot since Sunday. “It’s not important how long you are here, it’s important that we are all here coming together,” he says.

It’s in the wee hours of Tuesday, April Fool's Day. Last week's warm weather had many thinking that spring was right around the corner. It's not.

Today the only important arrivals will be the nine Supreme Court justices who, according to Dave Bests, a Howard University Law student, will arrive in a secret entrance at the back side of the building. Bests sits on a foldout chair, like one a football-watching beer drinker would use. It has two large cup holders and is now Best’s favorite item. The chair has space for two, and next to him sits his classmate, Kenyon Coleman.

Best and almost 30 other people have made the sidewalk their temporary home -- except for bathroom visits, which must be made at Union Station or inside during the court's business hours.

Students camped out are more interested in what will happen in the court in a few hours, when the oral arguments would be heard as a crowd of 5,000 to 7,000 demonstrated outside. But the camped-out students' curiosity comes with a price: two and a half grueling days in the cold, with weather that brought snow flurries and low temperatures. Briones has paid the price.

Each hour he sits on the concrete slab, he makes a down payment on his ticket into the court in the morning. Every roll call for which he is present moves him closer to a spot inside to hear oral arguments in Grutter v. Bollinger, and Gratz v. Bollinger, cases from the University of Michigan and its law school that could decide affirmative action's future.

“I think it’s a small price to pay for such a big part of history, and to see anything this monumental I think it’s well worth it," he said.

Although Briones isn’t guaranteed to be inside the court during the hearings, he has a good chance.

Two Howard students who have also been outside since Sunday started a list . Those who stay will be rewarded with a seat at the hearings, and those who left will have to find some other way to get the scoop.

Briones is number 32 on a list of almost 80, and he has tried to stick close to his newfound home on the corner of the Supreme Court building.

The two Howard Law School women are walking around taking attendance. If you go away for eight hours, you name gets scratched from the list. That's just the rule out here.

Briones’ orange-and-white Texas flag is illuminated brightly behind his head.

Shining more brightly is Hopwood v. Texas. In that 1996 case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down all consideration of race in college admissions in its jurisdiction: Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Briones entered the University of Texas a year later, and saw its aftermath in the law school. He said minority enrollment dropped dramatically the following year.

News reports said that although African American enrollment went from 26 African Americans in 1996 to four in 1997, and Mexican American enrollment from 42 to 26.

“I mean I didn’t have to go far to see how affirmative action affected my life," Briones said, “I am a product of Hopwood v. Texas."

Briones grew up in El Paso and is studying for his master's degree at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Regardless of the outcome of the case, Briones says he's achieved one goal. He wanted to be a part of history.

Josef Sawyer is a student at Howard University who writes for The Hilltop.

Posted April 1, 2003