Equal Protection Clause Of The Fourteenth Amendment example essay topic

Affirmative Action is any effort taken to expand opportunity for women or racial, ethnic and national origin minorities by using membership in those groups that have been subject to discrimination as a consideration. The Fourteenth Amendment states that no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. As a result, Affirmative action is not consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment. In this essay, I will first discuss the violation of Affirmative Action against the Fourteenth Amendment.

Second, how Affirmative Action helps one group of people while leaving out the other groups of people. Affirmative Action has occurred in several cases throughout the Americans history and the case that I will be referring to is Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke. This case presents a challenge to the special admissions program of the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, which is designed to assure the admission of a specified number of students from certain minority groups (253). In 1973 and 1974, Allan Bakke, a white male, who applied twice to the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, was rejected even though his grade point average and MCAT scores were higher than most of the applicants. With the fact that applicants that were admitted with the special admissions program had lower scores, Bakke alleged that the Medical School's special admissions program operated to exclude him from the school on the basis of his race (258). This, he stated, violates his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Equal Protection Clause states that "No State shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal (260). If everybody is guaranteed the same protection under the Constitution, then no one should be treated differently at the University.

Hence, Affirmative Action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. To relate the idea that race is not the main problem and that everyone's rights is protected under equal protection, the case of Plessy v, Ferguson fits into the category. In the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, a Louisiana statute, passed in 1890, made it legal for railway companies carrying passengers in the state to "provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races". Homer Plessy, a man of mixed ancestry, refused to surrender his seat in a white compartment of a railway car and was subsequently arrested for violation of the statute. What happened to equal protection? When race is taken into account, equal protection is disclaimed.

What if race is not taken into account then Affirmative Action is the problem. With the Affirmative Action violating the Fourteenth Amendment, the Medical School of University of California at Davis believes that the special admissions program does not violate any law. Having the program was to increase the population of minorities in the Medical School. The reason the University is doing this is because of strict scrutiny (to examine extremely closely or strictly whether there is a compelling state interest for treating people differently). In this case, strict scrutiny has to do with past discrimination and to undo the wrong doing from the past. The special admissions programs purports to serve the purpose of: (i) reducing the historic deficit of traditionally disfavored minorities in medical schools and in the medical profession; (ii) countering the effects of societal discrimination; ( ) increase the number of physicians who will practice in communities currently undeserved; and (iv) obtaining the educational benefits that flow from an ethnically diverse student body (266).

The reasons for having these special admissions are to increase the number of minorities and to have them represent their community. To some people, they might ague that Affirmative Action gives certain advantages to certain people and it is unfair. Affirmative Action was started when the University first got started. Students that possesses athletic skills, the children of alumni, the powerful, connections with celebrities, and the famous has higher chances of getting in the University over other people (290). Not only that Affirmative Action was unfair during that time, it left out the minorities not giving them equal opportunity to receive the education they deserved. Therefore, Affirmative Action violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

Affirmative Action gives privileges to certain groups and leaving out certain groups not able to succeed without special protection. There's nothing in the Constitution that says "A" should suffer a burden because society has hurt "B". Although the Blacks had been discriminated during the earlier years, it does not mean that the children of the future should suffer for what happened in the past. If innocent people were being discriminated because of the past wrong doings then this would lead to reverse discrimination. Even though Affirmative Action was created to help the less fortunate people to have a chance to succeed in the society, it still separates one certain groups from another thus giving one certain groups more opportunity to succeed and leaving the other groups behind.

Because of the special program in the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, Bakke was rejected because of his race. This decision made by the University is discrimination. Therefore, Affirmative Action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In conclusion, the existent of Affirmative Action is not consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment. I strongly disagree on having Affirmative Action even though it can help the less fortunate people but also at the same time discriminate the others. It all started with the discrimination during the earlier years and now it is the time to fix the wrong.

"Having a diverse college cause to learn different things about the world, you need different people with different opinion or perspective". (President of Princeton).