Abigail Fisher sued the University of Texas after being denied admission, claiming the decision was made because she is white. The reverse discrimination argument was the center of a landmark Supreme Court case decided in 2016. Kennedy, who, in an executive order, stated that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or natural origin.” That order regarding employment opportunities further emphasized the need for equal opportunity more broadly, and the policy soon made its way to higher education admissions. The term was first introduced in 1961 by President John F. What is affirmative action?Īffirmative action is a policy used by colleges and universities to improve the educational opportunities for certain races, genders, and sexual orientations that are commonly and historically discriminated against.

It seems every time Republicans and Democrats switch places in the White House, conversations about whether it works are ignited anew.

While Trump didn’t make his personal views on the cases known, his Department of Education and Justice Department ultimately officially signaled that university admissions departments had no obligation to consider race as a factor when determining the composition of their student bodies.īut affirmative action has long been a controversial policy, with lawsuits dating back decades. At the heart of the discussion were two major court cases in which a white student at the University of Texas and a group of Asian American students at Harvard University claimed that affirmative action policies discriminated against them. The Trump era rekindled a heated national debate over affirmative action.

Affirmative actio.