In the
United States, programs to overcome
the effects of past societal discrimination
by allocating jobs and resources to
members of specific groups, such
as minorities and women. The policy
was implemented by federal agencies
enforcing the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and two executive orders, which
provided that government contractors
and educational institutions receiving
federal funds develop such programs.
The Equal Employment Opportunities
Act (1972) set up a commission to
enforce such plans.
The establishment
of racial quotas in the name of affirmative
action brought charges of so-called
reverse discrimination in the late
1970s. Although the U.S. Supreme
Court accepted such an argument in Regents of the
University of California v. Bakke (1978),
it let existing programs stand and
approved the use of quotas in 1979
in a case involving voluntary affirmative-action
programs in unions and private businesses.
In the 1980s, the federal government's
role in affirmative action was considerably
diluted.
In three cases in
1989, the Supreme Court undercut court-approved
affirmative action plans by giving
greater standing to claims of reverse
discrimination, voiding the use of
minority set-asides where past discrimination
against minority contractors was
unproven, and restricting the use
of statistics to prove discrimination,
since statistics did not prove intent.
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 reaffirmed
a federal government's commitment
to affirmative action, but a 1995
Supreme Court decision placed limits
on the use of race in awarding government
contracts; the affected government
programs were revamped in the late
1990s to encompass any person who
was "socially disadvantaged."
In
the late 1990s, in a public backlash
against perceived reverse discrimination,
California and other states banned
the use of race- and sex-based
preferences in state and local programs.
A 2003 Supreme Court decision concerning
affirmative action in universities
allowed educational institutions
to consider race as a factor in
admitting students as long as it was
not used in a mechanical, formulaic
manner. In Europe, the European Court
of Justice has upheld (1997) the use
in the public sector of affirmative-action
programs for women, establishing
a legal precedent for the nations
of the European
Union. |
