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Doc7 - Affirmative Action Def

Affirmative action in the United States aims to enhance opportunities for minority groups and women, originating from efforts to address historical discrimination. Initiated by President Lyndon Johnson, it has faced legal challenges, particularly regarding the use of racial quotas, culminating in the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that effectively ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The policies typically consider criteria such as race, gender, and disability to promote equality in employment and education.

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11 views1 page

Doc7 - Affirmative Action Def

Affirmative action in the United States aims to enhance opportunities for minority groups and women, originating from efforts to address historical discrimination. Initiated by President Lyndon Johnson, it has faced legal challenges, particularly regarding the use of racial quotas, culminating in the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that effectively ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The policies typically consider criteria such as race, gender, and disability to promote equality in employment and education.

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Affirmative Action

Article adapted from the online Encyclopaedia Britannica (Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024)
www.britannica.com

Affirmative action, in the United States, an active effort to improve employment or educational
opportunities for members of minority groups and for women. Affirmative action began as a
government remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against such groups and has
consisted of policies, programs, and procedures that give limited preferences to minorities and
women in job hiring, admission to institutions of higher education, the awarding of government
contracts, and other social benefits. The typical criteria for affirmative action are race, disability,
gender, ethnic origin, and age.
Affirmative action was initiated by the administration of President Lyndon Johnson (1963–69) in
order to improve opportunities for African Americans while civil rights legislation was dismantling
the legal basis for discrimination.
By the late 1970s the use of racial quotas and minority set-asides led to court challenges of
affirmative action as a form of “reverse discrimination.” The first major challenge was Regents of
the University of California v. Bakke (1978), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5–4) that
quotas may not be used to reserve places for minority applicants if white applicants are denied a
chance to compete for those places. Although the court outlawed quota programs, it allowed
colleges to use race as a factor in making admissions decisions.
In 1989, the Supreme Court began to impose significant restrictions on race-based affirmative
action. Opposition to affirmative action in California culminated in the passage in 1996 of the
California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209), which prohibited all government agencies and
institutions from giving preferential treatment to individuals on the basis of their race or sex.
In June 2023 the Court ruled (6–3) that the admissions programs of both Harvard and the University
of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause. (…) The Court’s decision was widely
understood as marking the effective end of all race-based affirmative action programs in college and
university admissions in the United States.

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