Regents
of the
Reviewed
by Sarah Scherff
This case decided was in 1978. It was a close
divided decision to let race be one of the factors to be considered in choosing
a College Candidates for a university.
They decided that the use of quotas, for affirmative action, was not
permissible. The University of
Review of Facts
• What happened in this case?
Bakke was unhappy with the
admissions administration at the medical school at UC Davis. He was believed that he was rejected by the
school because of affirmative action.
Bakke took the case to the courts to decide whether this “affirmative
action” is constitutional. It first went
to the county court of
• Who are the parties?
The Plaintiff in the
first case was Bakke, and then in the Supreme Court he became the
defendant. The Defendant and then
Plaintiff was the
• What facts are important?
Unimportant?
The facts that are
important are the following: Bakke is a white male who applied two times to the
UC Davis Medical school; the special admissions qualifications are much lower
than the admissions of the regular applicants;
the special admissions involves only minorities; the Equal protection
clause of the 14th amendment and Title VI of the Equal Rights Act of
1964 is violated because he was rejected because of race; the school uses a
special admissions policy to select a percentage of students; Bakke had higher
scores on the M-CAT and g.p.a than some of the students admitted to the school;
the case was also taken to court by Bakke in the federal and state courts. The unimportant facts are that from 1971 to 1974 the special program resulted in the admission of
21 black students, 30 Mexican Americans, and 12 Asians, for a total of 63
minority students.* During the same period, the regular admissions program
admitted 1 black student, 6 Mexican Americans, and 37 Asians, for a total of 44
minority students.
• Is any significant information
missing?
There is no significant
information missing.
• Why did the people involved act the
way they did?
Bakke felt as though he was cheated in the system
because he was a white male and was rejected two times from the
Frame the Issue
• Legal: Is it legal to create a different
set of standards to a group of students considered a minority? This is illegal because according the Constitution
and the Equal Rights Act of 1964 no one can be rejected by something (like a
school) because of his or her race or sex.
Is the idea of having a “quota” for schools or for hiring people constitutional? This is illegal because of the different laws
that are known throughout the
• Public
Policy: Should it be legal
to set up different standards in admissions for the minorities? This is where the major conflict is. Many would say that the minorities should
have a different quota because many are being pushed away because there are
other people who are “better” than they are.
Most of the other people (including many minorities) feel as though this
is sort of embarrassing. The Minorities
should not be able to be accepted into a college or get a job because the
school or office needs more diversity.
It shows to the minorities that the “white” dominant race is better than
the minority. It shows that without affirmative
action, there would not be a lot of minorities.
This is untrue and unfair to say.
Many people believe that they should receive an education or a job
because of their own skill and not their physical traits.
• Values
in Conflict: Which would be
more important: People being accepted into a school because of race to create
diversity or to accept students into a school because of their shown talent and
skill? Although not having to worry as much of about g.p.a or test scores for a
minority is nice to them, it is not fair for the majority people who have to
work harder at being accepted into a school because a certain percentage of their
admissions have to go to the under privileged is concentrated on the
minorities. This also would boost the
moral of the minorities because this would show that they have the ability to
enter a school (or get a job) because of their talent and not race.
• Practical: How should the schools deal with this salutation?
How will they allow more diversity in the schools without having to have such a
problem with the regular admission students?
The only real way to be fair in this is follow the constitution. This means that there should not be a special
admissions program that will allow students with lower g.p.a or test scores to
enter the school. The test scores and
g.p.a. should not be the only decision in why the school would accept the
students however. Many things should
come into play like extracurricular activities, and maybe an interview of the
person. This interview would not be a
get to know what you are type of interview, but more of a “get to know who you
are” type of interview.
Discuss
the Arguments
• What are the arguments in favor of
and against each point of view?
There are many arguments in
favor of Bakke’s point of view such as the following: the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution states: "No State
shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws."; The Fourteenth Amendment does not allow a state to impose
distinctions based upon race. The belief that some forms of discrimination
based on race might be "benign" is irrelevant to the demands of the
Fourteenth Amendment; The Fourteenth Amendment gives the right to equal
protection to individuals, not groups; Benefits provided to individuals because
of alleged group discrimination are not valid under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The arguments in favor of
the School are the following: the
Fourteenth Amendment states that people should be treated equally; it does not
state that people should be treated the same. Treating people equally means
giving them what they need; The special admissions program at the
University of California at Davis medical school did not consider only those of
minority races, but (in 1973) also considered white students who had been
educationally and/or economically disadvantaged; . Some candidates admitted in the special
admissions program at the
• Which arguments are most persuasive?
Least persuasive? Why?
The arguments about the 14th Amendment
and Equal Rights Act of 1964 mostly support Bakke’s case. This is because he is arguing that he did not
get into the school because he was Caucasian.
The amendment and act clearly state that no one shall basically be looked
upon differently because of race, and he was discriminated against because of
his race. The most persuasive argument
for the school is that the school also considered white students in the
disadvantaged group because of their economical hardships. This shows that the school considers all
people that have hardships, but want to go to that school. This is persuasive because it proves that
Bakke’s argument is wrong. It is not
because of his race that he was rejected; there were other white people that
were considered in the special admissions group. The least persuasive for the school is that
three times as many Asians were accepted into the regular admissions that in
the special admissions. It shows
statistics, but it only really shows the one race.
• What might be the consequences of
each course of action? To the parties?
To society?
The consequences would be that either schools and
jobs and other things will look at a person’s race in whatever it may be, or
that the character of that person is dependent on the action. If UC Davis wins this court case then people
will not look down upon the school and believe that they are racist. If the court rules in favor of Bakke then the
school will be looked down upon because they discriminate against certain
races. Bakke will get into the school if
they rule in hi favor; if not, then he will not go to the school.
• Are there any alternatives?
There are no real alternatives. The only way the ruling could go would be in
favor of Bakke or the school; there is no in between. This case ruled in favor of Bakke.
Reach a Decision
• Do you agree or disagree with it?
Why? (Based upon or in light of
the Constitution)
I agree with the decision because the Constitution
clearly states that there shall be no discrimination of race. In this case I think that Bakke made a
clearer argument that the school was discriminating against him. I felt as though they did not really disprove
that he wasn’t accepted because of his race.
If the school had rejected him because of a different reason, then the
school would be right and I would not rule in favor of Bakke, but the school
did not.
• A statement of the issue or problem posed by
the case, a reference to the arguments or various positions that can be taken
on the issue
This
one court case is basically the beginning of a long hard journey over
affirmative action. IT is basically
split down the center with opinions. I
think that many people really believe that affirmative action is a sort of way
to get back all of the times that a certain race has been oppressed. On the other hand many people believe that it
puts down the intelligence or abilities that the minority groups have. This affirmative action idea brings down the
morale of the minorities because they sort of feel like they cheated. I feel as though I could be accepted into a
college like Harvard only because I am African American, because truthfully I
know that there would be no chance other than that to get into such a prestigious
school with the grades and classes that I have now. There are many people out there who work hard
at getting into schools, and those are the people who should get the job or the
placement in the school because they work for it. Affirmative Action kind of gives the
minorities the chance to slack off a little more than could a majority
population person.
What will the decision mean for the parties involved? For society?
Bakke will basically just get what he wants, which
is to enter the medical school. HE also
gets the satisfaction that he was wronged and that this wrong was corrected by
the courts. Bakke basically gets his
revenge on the school. UC Davis on the
other hand is sort of embarrassed because of this whole ordeal and it may be
possible that this school’s status will be lower because of the racism. According to our society, this decision is
just the start of the wrong things of “affirmative action”. It kind of brings up the questions of “Why
did I really get this job?” or “How did I really get accepted into this
school?”