Assignment task:
FRQ: SCOTUS COMPARISON
In the mid-1970's, California resident Allan Bakke, a white, 35 year-old man, applied to the University of California-Davis medical school. The school's affirmative action policy set aside 16 of the 100 spots exclusively for qualified minority applicants. The medical school denied Bakke's admission while it accepted minorities with lower grade point averages (GPAs) and test scores. Bakke alleged the state university violated both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Constitution in rejecting his application based on his race while accepting applicants of a minority status with lower GPAs and test scores.
In the decision of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the U.S. Supreme Court held in a unique 5-4 ruling, that the university had violated the 1964 statute, but that using race as a criterion in higher education admissions was constitutionally permissible. The Court did not declare the practice of affirmative action unconstitutional but did declare that overly strict racial guidelines violate the Constitution.
A. Identify the constitutional clause relevant to both Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
B. Explain how the ruling differed in the Bakke and Brown cases.
C. Describe an action students who oppose the Bakke ruling can take to limit its impact.