The Affirmative Action

Controversy
 The questions to
consider:
• At what point do the efforts to secure justice
and equal opportunities in life for one group
infringe on the rights of other groups?
• Affirmative action, a utilitarian or a moral
concept?
• Is it the role of the government to foster a
climate where people have equal
opportunity
• to participate in a competitive system of
occupations and rewards, or should the
government ensure equal results in any
competition?
 Liberty, Equality
EandWEEEqualityEqua
• Plato wrote in thelity
Republic, “That justice
must be relative to the needs of the people
who are served not to the desires of those
who serve them”.
• In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls
interprets justice as, “fairness, which
maximizes equal liberty for all”.
• Joseph Tussman and Jacobus tenBroek
noted, after exploring the Fourteenth
Amendment, that those who insist on
constitutional rights for all are not so much
demanding the removal of government
restraints as they are asking for positive
government action to provide equal
treatment for “minority groups, parties, or
organizations whose rights are too easily
sacrificed or ignored in periods of popular
hysteria”.
Timeline of Affirmative
Action
 Timeline
1941
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order
8802, outlawing segregationist hiring practices in defense
industries bidding for Federal contracts.
1954
The US Supreme Court unanimous overturns 'separate but
equal' racial segregation in Brown v. Board of Education.
1955
The US Supreme Court directs governments to eliminate
segregation with 'all deliberate speed.'
1964
 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson coins the phrase 'affirmative
action' in Executive Order 11246 requiring all federal
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."
1964
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting
racial discrimination in public places and racial and sexual
discrimination in employment.
1965
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, overturning
local and state government practices denying the right to
vote to members of minorities.
 The US Supreme Court outlaws racial quotas in Regents of
the University of California v. Bakke
1991
The US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1991,
strenghthening some Civil Rights protection and allowing
damages to be sought in cases of intentional discrimination.
1995
President Bill Clinton makes a speech supporting
affirmative action. His famous line from this speech was
"Mend it, don't end it."
2003
The US Supreme Court hears two cases on affirmative
action. The Court upheld the affirmative action policies of
the University of Michigan Law School but struck down the
policies of the University of Michigan's undergradate