Affirmative Action: A Spin-Off of Brown v Board

The legal system has had its hands full with affirmative action cases.  In 1978, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action as a practice as long as race was not the determining factor in acceptance of applicants (Teaching Tolerance, 2004).  In 1996, a federal court ended the practice of affirmative action as a practice in accepting applicants in the states of Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana but in 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that diversity is a legitimate reason to have affirmative action (Teaching Tolerance, 2004).  Then in a surprising verdict in March of this year the Supreme Court backed the University of Michigan's ban of affirmative action (Mears, 2014).  Finally, a federal court of appeals, after the Supreme Court kicked it back down to them because not enough scrutiny was used,  upheld University of Texas admission policy in a case where UT was being sued for using race as a practice (Wermund, 2014). 

Resources

Mears, B. (2014, April 23).  Michigan's ban on affirmative action upheld by Supreme Court.  CNN News.  Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/22/justice/scotus-michigan-affirmative-action/

National Constitutional Staff. (2013, June 24).  Affirmative action: Timeline of 10 major cases and orders.  Yahoo News. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com

Teaching Tolerance. (2004, Spring).  Brown v. Board: Timeline of school integration in the U.S..  Teaching Tolerance, 25.  Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org

Wermund, B. (2014, July 30). Fisher asks appeals court to reconsider UT admissions case.  The Houston Chronicle.  Retrieved from http://www.chron.com



Image taken from: http://laloalcaraz.com/anti-affirmative-action-girl-editorial-cartoon-by-lalo-alcaraz-2003/aagirl

Image taken from: http://www.intoon.com/cartoons.cfm/id/3341

Image taken from: http://www.aaanet.org/press/an/infocus/affirmativeaction/0309_ibarra.htm

Image taken from:  http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com/2012/06/baloo-affirmative-action-translated.html