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1 (September 13, 2005)

handle is hein.crs/crsuntaabpy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS22256 September 13, 2005 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Federal Affirmative Action Law: A Brief History Charles V. Dale Legislative History American Law Division Summary Affirmative action remains a focal point 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 in Texas, Georgia, Michigan, and Washington, questioning in general the constitutional status of racial and ethnic diversity policies in public education; ruled on minority preferences in public and private employment as a remedy for violation of civil and constitutional rights; invalidated a Federal Communications Commission policy requiring radio licensees to adopt affirmative minority recruitment and outreach measures; and considered state and local efforts to increase minority group participation as contractors and subcontractors on publicly financed construction projects. Ongoing legal controversy surrounds the Supreme Court's 1995 ruling in Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena, setting constitutional standards for race-based affirmative action by the federal government. This report will be updated as necessary. The origins of affirmative action law may be traced to the early 1960's as first, the Warren, and then the Burger Court, grappled with the seemingly intractable problem of racial segregation in the nation's public schools. Judicial rulings from this period recognized an affirmative duty, cast upon local school boards by the Equal Protection Clause, to desegregate formerly dual school systems and to eliminate root and branch the last vestiges of state-enforced segregation.! These holdings ushered in a two decade era of massive desegregation - first in the South, and later the urban North - marked by federal desegregation orders frequently requiring drastic reconfiguration of school attendance patterns along racial lines and extensive student transportation schemes. School districts across the nation operating under these decrees later sought to be declared in compliance with constitutional requirements in order to gain release from federal intervention. The Supreme Court eventually responded by holding that judicial control of a school system previously found guilty of intentional segregation should be relinquished if, looking to all aspects of school operations, it appears that the district has Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress 1See e.g. Green v. County Board, 391 U.S. 430 (1968); Swann v. Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971); Keyes v. Denver School District, 413 U.S. 189 (1973).