Affermative Action
By:
Marwa Salamin
Mr. Blair Thorpe
Law & Society
10/15/12
Affirmative action is a policy used to amend past discrimination against women and minority groups through procedures to increase their education and economic prospects. This policy has been a collective tool in protecting the rights of the minority, which is one of the goals of the legal system. However, some of the people that fall into the majority group believe that the affirmative action is racial discrimination, and goes against the most basic principle of meritocracy.
The fight against affirmative action started 9 years ago with Grutter v. Bollinger case. The Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action in the University Michigan’s law school, reasoning the diverse student body improves education and help students their social abilities. Nerveless, the affirmative action file was recently opened with the appearance of Fisher V. The University of Texas case. This case reopened the debate on whether to declare the affirmative action constitutional or unconstitutional. The Texas case began in 2008, when Abigail Noel Fisher applied for the University of Texas and wasn’t accepted. Although, Fishers records in high school didn’t guarantee her admission, she blamed it on the affirmative action. She claims that she was dissented based on racial discrimination. Thus, the dispute was created on whether the admission policies produced at the University of Texas Austin (UT,) which grants preference to the minority, violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. The Fisher V. University of Texas case should be ruled by the precedent set by the Grutter v. Bollinger case. However, declaring the affirmative action unconstitutional is a possible verdict. Fisher has the 14th amendment on her side which states that all citizens are entitled to equal protection under the law. Chief Justice Roberts, in a 2007 affirmative-action decision, famously stated
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