Affirmative Action Flashcards

Flashcards about affirmative action, its history, legal challenges, and arguments for and against it.

Affirmative Action

Practices designed to increase the percentage of historically excluded groups in employment, education, and government.

Outreach (Affirmative Action)

Steps to increase applications from target groups without using group membership as the hiring/admission decision basis.

Tie-breaker (Affirmative Action)

Giving a position to a qualified applicant from a target group when applicants are equally qualified.

Point System (Affirmative Action)

Awarding points to members of a target group based on their membership in that group.

Quota System (Affirmative Action)

Hiring/admitting a certain number of applicants from a target group irrespective of qualifications.

Discrimination

Drawing a distinction between one thing and another; treating different groups of people differently.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Ruled that the school’s quota system was unconstitutional related to affirmative action policies.

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

Universities can consider race/ethnicity as a “plus” factor in individualized consideration.

Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)

The court ruled it is not narrowly tailored to achieve the interest in educational diversity.

Fisher v. University of Texas (2016)

Upheld UT Austin admission policy; benefits of diverse student body served as a basis.

Students for Fair Admission vs. Harvard (and UNC) (June 2023)

Ruled against race-conscious, points-based affirmative action programs in colleges/universities.

Axelsen: Affirmative Action and the Relevant Values

Distributive justice, social wellbeing, and compensatory justice.