"It has been treated as if it has more weight, but it doesn't," he said.

Bollinger said the university is prepared to see the case through the Supreme Court if it becomes necessary.

Immediately after Friedman released the ruling, U-M officials said that they would appeal the decision in the Sixth Circuit Court.

"We have documented with empirical evidence that racial and ethnic diversity enhance learning and the preparation of our students to work and participate as citizens in our increasing diverse society... We are confident that we will prevail in a higher court," U-M Provost Nancy Cantor said in a press release.

In addition, Bollinger said that the university will "seek an immediate stay of the court's order so that we can continue our efforts to offer an integrated legal education in Michigan."

Bollinger compared the Michigan affirmative action lawsuits to the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools should be integrated. If the U-M affirmative action policy is not upheld, he said, society runs the risk of sliding "back into a world in which we don't attend to those issues."

Bollinger stressed that the results of the U-M cases are relevant at private institutions like Harvard as well.