Affirmative ActionPreferential Treatment

This book examines a survey of federal laws containing preferences based on race, gender, or ethnicity. Affirmative action remains a subject of public debate as the result of legal and political developments at the federal, state, and local levels. In recent years, federal courts have reviewed minority admissions programs to state universities; scrutinized the constitutional status of racial diversity policies in public elementary and secondary schools; ruled on minority preferences in public and private employment as a remedy for violation of civil and constitutional rights; and considered federal, state, and local efforts to increase minority participation as contractors and subcontractors on publicly financed construction projects. Also discussed is affirmative action in the workplace; diversity in public education; race discrimination and the Supreme Court; and pay discrimination claims of the Civil Rights Act.