In "A Matter of Principle," Dworkin analyzes the court case: The Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke (1978), among other subjects. This is the most significant civil rights case to reach the United States Supreme Court since Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Allen). This case involves admission procedures of the University of California Medical School at Davis. Davis ut

Throughout its existence and up to today, affirmative action has been highly controversial. This debate is clearly visible in Bakke's case. Dworkin is in agreement with the University speaker, Archibald Cox, and believes that only through affirmative action can many important goals in the United States be achieved. Cox specifically states that affirmative action programs are the only effective means of increasing the small number of black doctors. The University believes that they will not fulfill what they perceive to be their responsibilities to the United States if they are not able to use explicit racial criteria in their programs (Dworkin 294). When thoroughly analyzed, it is found that this reasoning simply does not follow.

Additionally, Dworkin claims that the Court cannot speculate as to the probable consequences of affirmative action policies (Dworkin 297). First of all, the Court is not speculating. It is simply trying to ensure fairness and equality for everyone. This is why quotas were prohibited; because they discriminated against whites like Bakke. Thus, the consequences of affirmative action are presently visible and do not have to be speculated upon. Dworkin further states that the uncertainties about the long-term results of affirmative action programs do not justify the Court decision making them illegal. However, this is not coherent because people's rights are being violated now. Therefore, there is no uncertainty about the present results of affirmative action. People are being discriminated against now, as is visible in the Bakke case, and this is why another approach should be taken to increase the number of minorities in institutions and establishments, one distinct from affirmative action. Dworkin states that if we do away with affirmative action, we are getting rid of a chance to attack injustice in order to gain protection we may not need against abuses (Dworkin 302). We do need protection against this type of abuse. This is visible through the fact that Bakke's rights are presently being violated. Thus, affirmative action should be eliminated.

ilized an affirmative action program, called the task force program, which set aside 16 of its 100 spaces for members of "educationally and economically disadvantaged minorities" (Dworkin 293). Allan Bakke, a thirty three-year-old Caucasian male, applied for one of the remaining 84 places, for which anybody could apply, and was denied admission twice. Since there is no doubt that he would have been accepted if he were black due to his relatively high test scores, Bakke sued the University on the grounds that he had been deprived of his constitutional rights (Dworkin 301). More specifically, Bakke felt his rejections to be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which declares that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person in its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," and of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in federally funded programs and activities. In 1976, the California Supreme Court agreed with Bakke, holding by a 6 to 1 vote that any consideration of race violated the equal protection clause. The University voted to appeal and in February 1977, the United States Supreme Court granted the petition to review the case. On June 28, 1978, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion and disagreed with Bakke on the central point of his case, holding by a 5 to 4 vote that race could be considered consistent with equal protection and Title VI. The Court also held, however, that the use of quotas in such affirmative action programs was not permissible. Thus, the University of California, Davis, medical school had, by maintaining a 16% minority q

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Approximate Word count = 2950
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)