Affirmative Action Cases

Question 1

What is the significance of the regents of the university of California V Bakke 1978 case?

Answer 1

Racial quotas are rules unconstitutional, but allowed the continuation of race to be considered in the admission process

Question 2

What is the significance of the Gratz V Bollinger (2003)case?

Answer 2

The court struck down by 6-3 points based admissions system from Michigan university that awarded automatic bonus points to admission scores of minority applicants, as black, Hispanic and american-indian applicants were given 20 points when applying due to their race

Question 3

What is the significance of the Grutter V Bollinger (2003) case?

Answer 3

A separate case on same day as Gratz case, ruled 5-4 that Michigan law schools admissions programme was constitutional as it took an individualised approach when considering the racial profile of applicants

Question 4

What is the impact from the rulings in the Gratz and Grutter cases?

Answer 4

Court allowed universities to continue using race as a “plus factor” as long as they took an individualised approach

Majority decision in Grutter also stated that SCOTUS did not expect affirmative action programmes to be a permanent feature and that in around 25 years(2028) they would not be needed anymore

Question 5

What is the significance of the Meredith V Jefferson county (2007) case?

Answer 5

5-4 ruling that it was unconditional to assign students to public schools, solely for the purpose of achieving racial balance, protected equal protection rights in 14th amendment after brown V board case