A scholarship once reserved for Black students at a California university is now available to all after a white student and a conservative nonprofit claimed it violated a federal anti-Ku Klux Klan law.

The case's use of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, signed into law to protect the rights of African Americans in the South, is a novel approach that attorneys for the plaintiffs touted as a victory for equality and a possible blueprint for future challenges.

The law is "supposed to protect everyone, regardless of race," said Jack Brown, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation and Kai Peters, a student at the University of California at San Diego.

The Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit in July against UC San Diego and

See Full Page