What happened to Bakke is known as reverse discrimination. Bakke felt his rejections to be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, so he took the University of California Regents to the Superior Court of California. It was ruled that "the admissions program violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment"1 The clause reads as follows:

"...No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor without due process of the law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."2

"Bakke was the most significant civil rights case to reach the United States Supreme Court since Brown v. Board the Education of Topeka, Kansas."4 The special admissions program at Davis tried to further integrate the higher education system because merely removing the barriers, as the Brown case did, did not always work. In short, Bakke was questioning how far the University of California Medical School at Davis could go the try to make up for past racial discrimination and segregation.

I agree partly with the ruling of the Supreme Court. The decision that Bakke's Constitutional rights were violated I feel is correct.

"The Davis special admissions program used an explicit racial classification, Powell noted. Such classifications were not always unconstitutional, he continued, 'but when a state's distribution of benefits or imposition of burdens hinges on. .. the color of a person's skin or ancestry, that individual is entitled to demonstration that the challenged classification is necessary to promote a substantial state interest.' Powell could find no substantial interest that justified the establis hment of the... quota system. Not even the desire to remedy past discrimination was a sufficient justification, he said."8

ace could not be a factor in admissions. However, they did not force the admittance of Bakke because the court could not know if he would have been admitted if the special admissions program for minorities did not exist. Bakke disagreed with the court on this issue and he brought it before the California Supreme Court.

Obviously affirmative action and reverse discrimination are still heavily debated issues. This is because they affect all people of all races and ethnicities. Conclusion Allan Bakke was denied his fourteenth amendment right to equal protection of the laws. In addition the University of California at Davis violated Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. By order of the Supreme Court Bakke was admitted and th e numerical quotas of the special admissions program were deemed unconstitutional. Justice was served to Bakke, but future generations who are not minorities may be plagued by the other half of the decision: That race may still be used as a "plus" on an application.

Affirmative action has recently become an issue in the Supreme Court again. Because Clarence Thomas is replacing Thurgood Marshall, and Thomas is aga

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1600
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)