ABSTRACT
Allan Bakke is a white man who applied for admission to the medical school at the University of California at Davis. Only a tiny percentage of doctors are not white. In order to help remedy this situation, Davis had an affirmative action program that set aside 16 out of its 100 entrance places for minority students. Over the past 30 years, this Court has embarked upon the crucial mission of interpreting the Equal Protection Clause with the view of assuring to all persons "the protection of equal laws" in a nation confronting a legacy of slavery and racial discrimination. The concepts of "majority" and "minority" necessarily reflect temporary arrangements and political judgments. The white "majority" itself is composed of various minority groups, most of which can lay claim to a history of prior discrimination at the hands of the state and private individuals.
