Affirmative action violates the Constitution
A main purpose of the Constitution is to protect American citizens’ rights. Famously, it declares that "all men are created equal.” Affirmative action disparages this idea, prioritizing the inclusion of people of color over white people. This practice is a new kind of discrimination, which unfairly disadvantages white people. For this reason, affirmative action is unconstitutional.
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The Argument
Affirmative action policies hurt Caucasians if less qualified minority students are admitted over them.[1] For the sake of diversity, a wealthy person of color could be chosen instead of a poverty-stricken Caucasian. Merit is not taken into account and it focuses on diversifying an institution while providing “tailor-made” programs for minorities to thrive in. Caucasian people are not given the same “tailor-made” programs because of their race.
For instance, two of three prominent Supreme Court cases dealing with affirmative action programs in education have relied on the First and Fourteenth Amendment. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), University of California at Davis had denied admission to Alan Bakke, a white man, despite his grades and test scores being above those of the 16 African Americans selected for an entering class of 100 students. Four justices admitted Bakke on the basis that all considerations of race was morally wrong under the Fourteenth Amendment in circumstances where the school had no past history of racial discrimination.[2]
Counter arguments
Premises
[P1] Affirmative action policies do not treat different groups equally.
[P2] Affirmative action policies go against the Constitution.