Affirmative Action

What is it? Affirmative action programs grant preferences to underrepresented groups in admissions & hiring Programs are meant to make up for past and/or present discrimination

Legal Basis The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from denying persons equal protection under the law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to eliminate practices that favored white men.

University of California v. Bakke (1978) 16/100 medical school slots were reserved for minority/low income applicants Quotas: certain # must be admitted Bakke, a white male, was denied admission twice. Those admitted under the quota had lower MCAT scores and GPAs than Bakke.

The Bakke Decision The Court invalidated the quota as unconstitutional BUT upheld some affirmative action programs

Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) Gratz, a white student, wanted admission to the University of Michigan 20 / 100 points were assigned to applicants from underrepresented minority groups.

Grutter v. Bollinger Grutter, a white student applied to law school Applicants were evaluated based on all information available in their files, including race.

Let’s look at how it worked…. Hand out points system Who’s right?

Gratz/Grutter Decisions Gratz won, SC threw out points system Grutter lost, because the Court found that racial diversity is a compelling state interest, and the admissions process looked at many factors

The Future Justice O’Connor said that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary. Today, narrowly tailored affirmative action programs are legal, but not mandated. A California initiative passed that eliminated affirmative action.

In CA…affirmative action is illegal due to a proposition Top % of each HS is automatically accepted at a UC or Cal State Is this fair?