Since the early 1960s, minority participation goals have also been integral to executive branch enforcement of minority hiring and employment standards on federally financed construction projects and in connection with other large federal contracts. Affirmative Action in Public Education

The Regents of the University of California v. Bakke ruling in 1978 launched the contemporary constitutional debate over state-sponsored affirmative action. At issue in Fisher was the constitutionality of the undergraduate admissions plan at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, which, in a stated effort to increase diversity, considers race as one factor among many when evaluating applicants to the school. As a result, the courts should generally defer to a university's determination that racial diversity is essential to its educational goals.
Affirmative action remains a subject of public debate as the result of legal and political developments at the federal, state, and local levels. Over the years, federal courts have reviewed minority admissions programs to state universities; scrutinized the constitutional status of racial diversity policies in public elementary and secondary schools; ruled on minority preferences in public and private employment as a remedy for violation of civil and constitutional rights; and considered federal, state, and local efforts to increase minority participation as contractors and subcontractors on publicly financed construction projects. This report provides a brief history of federal affirmative action law.