September 1, 2010 Because the end of segregated schools did not
mean an end to unequal treatment for blacks in education, the
ACLU endorsed affirmative action: the use of employment and
admissions strategies to remedy years of discrimination. The
first major legal challenge to affirmative action in the Supreme
Court came in the 1976 case, Bakke v. Regents of California, in
which a white man sued over his unsuccessful application to
medical school, claiming 'reverse discrimination' because he was
more qualified than some black applicants. The Justices upheld
affirmative action, ruling that while 'racial and ethnic
distinctions of any sort are inherently suspect,' a university
could take race into account under appropriate circumstances.
The issue returned to the Supreme Court several decades later in
a set of cases challenging the affirmative action admissions
practices of the University of Michigan's law school and
undergraduate programs, respectively. The two cases were filed
in 1997 by white plaintiffs who