{ "id": "RL30410", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL30410", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 448360, "date": "2015-09-11", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T18:24:15.845395", "title": "Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education: Legal Developments", "summary": "Almost four decades after the Supreme Court ruling in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the diversity rationale for affirmative action in public education remains a topic of political and legal controversy. Many colleges and universities have implemented affirmative action policies not only to remedy past discrimination, but also to achieve a racially and ethnically diverse student body or faculty. Justice Powell, in his opinion for the Bakke Court, stated that the attainment of a diverse student body is \u201ca constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education,\u201d noting that \u201c[t]he atmosphere of speculation, experiment, and creation\u2019 so essential to the quality of higher education is widely believed to be promoted by a diverse student body.\u201d In subsequent years, however, federal courts began to question the Powell rationale, unsettling expectations about whether diversity-based affirmative action in educational admissions and faculty hiring is constitutional under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.\nAfter a series of conflicting lower court rulings were issued regarding the use of race to promote a diverse student body, the Supreme Court agreed to review the race-conscious admissions policies used by the undergraduate and law school admissions programs at the University of Michigan. In Grutter v. Bollinger, a 5 to 4 majority of the Justices held that the law school had a \u201ccompelling\u201d interest in the \u201ceducational benefits that flow from a diverse student body,\u201d which justified its race-based efforts to assemble a \u201ccritical mass\u201d of \u201cunderrepresented\u201d minority students. But in the companion decision, Gratz v. Bollinger, six Justices decided that the University\u2019s policy of awarding \u201cracial bonus points\u201d to minority applicants was not \u201cnarrowly tailored\u201d enough to pass constitutional scrutiny. The decisions resolved, for the time being, the doctrinal muddle left in Bakke\u2019s wake. And because the Court\u2019s constitutional holdings translate to the private sector under the federal civil rights laws, nonpublic schools, colleges, and universities are likewise affected.\nHowever, the Grutter and Gratz decisions did not address whether diversity is a permissible goal in the elementary and secondary educational setting. To resolve this question, the Supreme Court agreed to review two cases that involved the use of race to maintain racially diverse public schools and to avoid racial segregation. In a consolidated 2007 ruling in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, the Court struck down the Seattle and Louisville school plans at issue, holding that they violated the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment.\nMore recently, the Court\u2019s decision to hear challenges in two separate affirmative action cases has once again revived the issue of diversity in higher education. In its 2013 ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the Court reaffirmed its holding in Grutter, but nevertheless vacated and remanded an appellate court\u2019s decision to uphold a race-conscious undergraduate admissions plan at the University of Texas at Austin. However, on remand, the appellate court upheld the university\u2019s admissions program for a second time, a decision that appeared to prompt the Court to agree to review the case yet again during its 2015 term. Meanwhile, in 2014\u2019s Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Court upheld Michigan\u2019s Proposal 2, which prohibits the use of racial preferences in higher education.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL30410", "sha1": "facee48ebd76ebaa96fd1dbba4f4cbcfa7586896", "filename": "files/20150911_RL30410_facee48ebd76ebaa96fd1dbba4f4cbcfa7586896.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL30410", "sha1": "36c85d7fc6ad113eb7b2c0ac6a55ebedb405da4e", "filename": "files/20150911_RL30410_36c85d7fc6ad113eb7b2c0ac6a55ebedb405da4e.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc815557/", "id": "RL30410_2013Aug09", "date": "2013-08-09", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education: Legal Developments", "summary": "This report reviews the judicial evolution of race-based affirmative action, particularly in relation to public education. Recent rulings challenging the use of race-conscious admissions and hiring practices by public educational institutions are then considered for their implications on the future development of affirmative action law.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20130809_RL30410_845506e11c9bad743d1e18d0f5a73665c0c2290c.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20130809_RL30410_845506e11c9bad743d1e18d0f5a73665c0c2290c.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Minorities", "name": "Minorities" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Affirmative action programs", "name": "Affirmative action programs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Education", "name": "Education" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc807310/", "id": "RL30410_2012Oct18", "date": "2012-10-18", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education: Legal Developments", "summary": "The first part of this report briefly reviews the judicial evolution of race-based affirmative action, particularly in relation to public education. The report then reviews major rulings involving challenges to the use of race-conscious admissions and hiring practices by public educational institutions, and concludes with a discussion of the implications for the future development of affirmative action law.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20121018_RL30410_d1b35d78ccd04c6ec079701457767c3845dd68e7.pdf" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Minorities", "name": "Minorities" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Affirmative action programs", "name": "Affirmative action programs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Education", "name": "Education" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc822641/", "id": "RL30410_2007Jul16", "date": "2007-07-16", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education: Legal Developments", "summary": "This report reviews the judicial evolution of race-based affirmative action, particularly in relation to public education. Recent rulings challenging the use of race-conscious admissions and hiring practices by public educational institutions are then considered for their implications on the future development of affirmative action law.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20070716_RL30410_88482b535e68b53cc3cadc25023cde0cb64812cb.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20070716_RL30410_88482b535e68b53cc3cadc25023cde0cb64812cb.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Minorities", "name": "Minorities" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Affirmative action programs", "name": "Affirmative action programs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Education", "name": "Education" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc811539/", "id": "RL30410_2006Apr26", "date": "2006-04-26", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education \u2014 Legal Developments", "summary": "The first part of this report briefly reviews the judicial evolution of race-based affirmative action, particularly in relation to public education. Recent rulings challenging the use of racial admissions and hiring practices by public educational institutions are then considered for their implications on the future development of affirmative action law.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20060426_RL30410_18a61da4b3a4e043b90907fcd5ff02ccb03ca6c4.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20060426_RL30410_18a61da4b3a4e043b90907fcd5ff02ccb03ca6c4.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Minorities", "name": "Minorities" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Affirmative action programs", "name": "Affirmative action programs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Education", "name": "Education" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc805986/", "id": "RL30410_2003Jul22", "date": "2003-07-22", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education \u2014 Legal Developments", "summary": "The first part of this report briefly reviews the judicial evolution of race-based affirmative action, particularly in relation to public education. Recent rulings challenging the use of racial admissions and hiring practices by public educational institutions are then considered for their implications on the future development of affirmative action law.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20030722_RL30410_1c2f7f4409df4e0cc4846b8d2fadeebdf7033532.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20030722_RL30410_1c2f7f4409df4e0cc4846b8d2fadeebdf7033532.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Minorities", "name": "Minorities" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Affirmative action programs", "name": "Affirmative action programs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Education", "name": "Education" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Constitutional Questions" ] }