By Elorm Sallah
Affirmative action has been one of
the most controversial programs in the United States since John F. Kennedy on
March 6, 1961, Executive Order 10925, which stated that government contractors
“ take affirmative action
to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during
employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”[1] After 1961, with the passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, which even furthered affirmative action, there have been
numerous lawsuits that have attempted to contract this policy.[2]
In the most recent affirmative
action case that reached the Supreme Court of the United States, Fisher v. University of Texas, which was
a case concerning the affirmative action admission policy within the University
of Texas. The Court ruled that the
school “may use affirmative action only
when there is no other workable solution to bring about diversity, and only
until minorities reach a critical mass on campus.” However the Court ruled that the 5th
Circuit Court of the United States should rehear the case as they stated, “the
appeals court didn’t properly follow case law.”[3]
No one with the plaintiff Fisher’s
GPA was admitted into the University of Texas in 2008, however her attorneys
argue that “enough minorities attend the university that race should no longer
be a factor.”3 Ultimately, the University of Texas
argues that with 48,000 undergraduate students, they have “made progress in
minority enrolment only because of race-based criteria and that minorities are
not yet sufficiently represented in all colleges.” 3
One of the most notable affirmative
action cases, as it was the first case of that nature that the Supreme Court
had dealt with was Regents of the
University of California v. Bakke. Allan
Bakke, a thirty-five year old white man had twice applied for the University of
California Medical School at Davis, however he was rejected twice. The medical school reserved “sixteen places
in each entering medical class of one hundred for “qualified: minorities.” This was a part of the university’s
affirmative action program.[4]
Bakke’s qualifications – GPA and test scores
exceeded those of any of the minority students admitted in the two years
Bakke’s applications were rejected, and he eventually sued the school basing
his suit on he was “excluded from admission solely on the basis of race.” Ultimately the Court ruled, “Any racial quota
system supported by government violated the Civil rights act of 1964. The Court however followed that “the use of
race as a criterion in admissions decisions in higher education was constitutionally
permissible.” This case determined that
race is permissible as one of several admission criteria.4
Affirmative
action was initially put in place to protect minorities from unfair practices
of discrimination in employment, government contracts, and university
admissions however today many question it’s fairness as there has been an
increase in diversity of almost all fields of the workforce and
universities. The debate will continue
until a general consensus of people can determine that there are a fair amount
of groups of all people in every sector.
[1] “Executive order 10925.” Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission. Accessed November 19, 2013, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/thelaw/eo-10925.html.
[2] “Affirmative Action.”
Plato.stanford.edu, last modified September 17, 2013, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/.
[3] “Court asks University of Texas lawyers
how they’d decide affirmative action isn’t necessary,” Washington Post, November 13, 2013, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/05/
[4]
“Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, ” Oyez, Accessed November
19, 2013, http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_811.
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