“Detroit civil rights lawyer Shanta Driver made a last-minute decision to argue in a high-profile Supreme Court affirmative action case on Oct. 15 in part, she said, because so few African-Americans appear before the justices.”

That is how Tony Mauro of the National Law Journal began his story of October 30 explaining why that last-minute decision was made. You’ll notice the story came well after the oral argument in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, known as BAMN, which has challenged the constitutionality of that part of the Michigan civil rights initiative (approved by voters in 2006) that prohibits the use of race to either favor or disfavor applicants in admissions decisions in public higher education. Understandably, it took Mauro a while to find the answer to a question that had puzzled court watchers.