AFFIRMATIVE ACTION HANGS IN THE BALANCE

Affirmative action, a mechanism written into the civil rights laws of the 1960s, was designed to ensure equal opportunity for groups that had long been discriminated against by employers and institutions. Those hostile to the advancement of disadvantaged groups have often derided such efforts and called them "quotas," thereby trying to tag affirmative action programs as unfair.

Michigan Law School, one of the nation's top law schools, follows an official admissions policy that seeks to achieve student body diversity. When it denied admission to Ms. Grutter, a white Michigan resident, she sued, saying she was discriminated against on the basis of race because of the admissions policy of the school. In the case, called Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the Supreme Court upheld and supported the school's overall admissions policy—thus strengthening the law's commitment to affirmative action in academia in general.

"Access to legal education (and thus the legal profession)," Justice O'Connor wrote in her majority opinion, "must be inclusive of talented individuals of every race and ethnicity, so that all members of our heterogeneous society may participate in the educational institutions that provide the training and education necessary to succeed in America." Well said, we think.

Read an article from CBS news about affirmative action, for more information.