The Race-Based Affirmative Action: Does It Constitute Violation of the United States Laws?

Abstract

The problem of the race-based affirmative action’s legality in the United States higher education system has been one of America’s most complex, explosive, unresolved, and contentious issues ever since the policy’s inception in the late 1960’s. The issue of the policy’s legality has sparked unceasing discussion on whether the policy constitutes violation of the United States Constitution and the 1964 Civil Rights Act or not. The present research study aims to answer this question, since it is concentrated upon the race-based affirmative action’s legality in the public colleges and universities of the United States. The research proposes that the race-based affirmative action in the higher education system constitutes violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The purpose of the present work is to analyze why and how the policy contradicts the letter and spirit of these laws on the basis of the content analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court, District Court, and Court of Appeals’ decisions, scholarly works on the issue of the policy’s legality, the legislative history of these laws, and the review of state practice with respect to the efforts of abolishing the race-based affirmative action in the system of higher education.