Rights & liberties
affirmative action
Programs that consider race, sex, or other characteristics to expand opportunity. Race-conscious college admissions were held unconstitutional in 2023.
In full
The term covers a range of practices, from outreach and recruitment to explicit preferences, and the law treats them very differently. Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) held that race-conscious admissions programs violate equal protection, while leaving room for an applicant's own account of how race affected their life. Federal contracting and employment programs operate under separate rules.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.