For this blog I hope to give a brief overview about the topic of Affirmative Action. This overview will go through the major events that have lead to affirmative action's controversy. All future blogs will be on this topic, but with greater detail than today's and less "lecturey." However, this blog will lay the groundwork of understanding for future blogs.
Affirmative action was born out of the Civil Rights Movement (National Conference of State Legislatures). “[It] intended to provide equal opportunities for members of minority groups in education and employment” (National Conference of State Legislatures). Blacks were the first minority group affirmative action tried to help (National Conference of State Legislatures). President Kennedy, in his 1961 Executive Order 10925 termed the phrase affirmative action by “direct[ing] government contractors to 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'" (National Conference of State Legislatures). What this language is saying is that minorities of race, creed, color, or national origin are to be given a higher representation in the workforce.
These executive orders were expanded on by Lyndon B. Johnson to include women ("The origins of affirmative action"). He also signed an executive order making affirmative action policies mandatory for government agencies and to include women as minorities ("The origins of affirmative action").
In the 70s, colleges were beginning to institute forms of affirmative action in their admissions policies (National Conference of State Legislatures). Some of the first affirmative action policies took shape as quotas, like at the University of California. In 1974 the University of California created a statewide policy to admit the same proportion of minorities that graduated from California high schools. This quota policy and similar policies at universities in the US increased minority enrollment in schools around the nation ("Challenging Race Sensitive Admission Policy").
However, there were several Supreme Court cases regarding reverse-discrimination that arose from the affirmative action policies that were being instituted at colleges and universities, such as DeFunsis V. Odegaard (“Challenging Race Sensitive Admission Policy”). In this case, DeFunsis sued the University of Washington arguing that he was not accepted into the University of Washington Law School because he was white (“Challenging Race Sensitive Admission Policy”). In April of 1974, the case was dismissed because Marco Defunsis had already been admitted to a different law program (“Challenging Race Sensitive Admission Policy”).
In 1978, the Supreme Court case of the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the court ruled that that leaving spots open for minority students was unconstitutional ("Affirmative action. History"). Bakke, a NASA engineer, applied to medical school, at the University of California at Davis, but alleged he was not accepted because the University left spots open for minority students with lower test scores ("Affirmative action History”). Bakke’s test scores were in fact higher than most of the minority students, who were accepted. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bakke that UC Davis should admit him ("Affirmative action History"). This decision also prevented schools from using quotas for affirmative action in the future. But it did not completely ban affirmative action, because it left room for schools to use affirmative action to increase diversity. (“Challenging Race Sensitive Admission Policy”).
“The 1979 Supreme Court case, United Steel Workers AFL-CIO V. Weber ruled that affirmative action could be used temporarily to alleviate bias in employment as long as the process of affirmative action did not infringe on the rights of white employees” (“Affirmative action History").
Many were beginning to question Affirmative action in the mid-1980s. In several court cases, dissenters of Affirmative action attempted to get rid of Executive Order 10925, but failed (”Affirmative action History"). In 1995, President Clinton developed policy of “Mend it, don’t end it,” regarding affirmative action ("Affirmative action History"). Also in 1995, the Regents of the University of California ended affirmative action policies at all schools ("Affirmative action History"). The ending of affirmative action policies reduced minority enrollment 61% at the University of California Berkeley and 36% at the University of California Los Angeles ("Affirmative action History"). In 1995, the Congressional Glass Ceiling Commission reported that Affirmative action in corporate America was necessary to help women and other minorities have a chance of gaining employment, based on merit ("Affirmative action History").
Beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, state electorates were beginning to strike down affirmative action (Brunner Rowen). The 1997 Proposition 209 ended all affirmative action policies in California (Brunner Rowen). The 1998 Initiative 200 ended affirmative action policies ended in Washington state. In 2000, Jeb Bush’s “One Florida” Initiative ended affirmative action policies in Florida (Brunner Rowen). However, in 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action policies regarding admissions, in the cases of Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger ("Affirmative action History"). The court ruled that affirmative action could not be used to right past wrongs, but “could be used to “promote diversity” ("Affirmative action History").
The last major Supreme Court case regarding Affirmative Action came last summer. Although the Fischer v. University of Texas was rejected it was still a major victory for those in support of the policy (Liptak). This case shows that there are still major questions to be discussed regarding Affirmative Action. It is the goal of this series of blogs to help uncover the answers to these questions.
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