The Cost of Good Intentions: Why the Supreme Court's Decision Upholding Affirmative Action Admission Programs is Detrimental to the Cause

Abstract:     
This article provides an overview of the Federal Courts' interpretation of equal protection challenges to affirmative action admission policies beginning with University of California v. Bakke through the recent Supreme Court decisions of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. The article then identifies and outlines the appropriate elements of a constitutionally sound affirmative action admission policy. Finally, the article concludes that the permissible policy is almost unattainable for schools other than small institutions.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 40

Keywords: Constitutional law, affirmative action, admission policy, education, civil rights

JEL Classification: I20, K19, K39, I29

Accepted Paper Series