DETROIT, MI -- Monica Smith enrolled at Wayne State University Law School in 2005 alongside 22 other black students.

The next year, after Michigan voters passed a ban on affirmative action in university admissions, Smith saw only 11 new black students enroll.

"After me, that was the end of affirmative action, and the number of black students coming in was cut in half," Smith said.

That ban was declared unconstitutional Thursday by a deeply divided federal appeals court.

"This means a lot to me," said Smith. "This means that my brother, my cousins, other people in Detroit, the Latino and black students can go to Wayne State Law School and Medical School."

In an 8-7 en-banc decision, the 6th Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the ban made it more difficult for minorities to convince a university to favorably alter its admissions policies than for alumni or other groups, violating constitutional equal protection.

"Michigan cannot force those advocating for consideration of racial factors to traverse a more arduous road without violating the 14th Amendment," the majority ruled.

"The actual issue here is: Do black and Latino and Native American people have the same political right to go to the regents or the faculty and ask to adjust the admission standards as the citizens of Grosse Pointe, as legacy candidates, as athletes, as anybody else does? It's a pure question of political equality," said Detroit attorney George Washington, of the group that challenged the ban, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

Voters in 2006 approved the ban 58 percent to 42 percent in a statewide ballot proposal known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

"During those six years, the lives of many, many black and Latino students have been changed forever," said Washington.

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After court strikes down affirmative action ban, Detroit activists predict minority enrollment will double at ...