Question

Under current Supreme Court precedent, which of the following is a sufficient justification for a government program differentiating on the basis of a person's race?

A) A program laying off white teachers before minority teachers with less seniority, in order to achieve racial balance among the faculty.
B) A program of minority hiring to correct the effects of past discrimination in hiring by a government agency.
C) A program assigning students to public high schools based on race in order to promote diversity among the student body.
D) A redistricting of legislative boundaries for the purpose of placing racial or ethnic minority voters in the majority.

Answer 1

The sufficient justification for a government program to differentiate based on race, as per Supreme Court precedent, is to correct past discrimination in government hiring practices, aligning with the principles of narrowly tailored affirmative action.

Step-by-step explanation:

Under current Supreme Court precedent, the only sufficient justification for a government program differentiating on the basis of a person's race is as follows: B) A program of minority hiring to correct the effects of past discrimination in hiring by a government agency. This is in line with the principle of affirmative action, where the government needs to prove a compelling interest of remedying past discrimination, and the measure must be narrowly tailored to serve that interest without being a quota system. In landmark cases such as Bakke v. California and Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court has established that race can be considered as one factor among others in decision-making processes like college admissions to foster diversity and counter past discrimination, but it cannot be the sole factor leading to the establishment of a quota system.