THE BOARD OF REGENTS VS BAKKE 1978

In the mid 1970's Allan Bakke, a white graduate student, protested his inability to enter medical school at the University of California at Davis. He arugued that affirmative action programs prevented him from entering and were denying him his rights under the 13th and 14th amendments of the Constitution. It was during the 1970's that there were protests of "reverse discrimination" or giving of preference to minorities over "whites" in many facets of life. The court case reached the Supreme Court and was settled by a split 5-4 decison in favor of Bakke. The court said racial quaotas must be eliminated but as Supreme court Justice Lewis Powell commented the " ..race can be a factor but only one of many to achieve a balance." In other words race could not be a decisive factor in admitting or excluding applicants. Affirmative action policies continued but was further defined.