The Constitutional Logic of Affirmative Action PDF
Preview The Constitutional Logic of Affirmative Action
The Constitutional LOBicof Affirmative Action The Constitutional Logic of ative Action by RONALD J. FISCUS edited by Stephen 1. Wasby DUKE UNIVERSITYPRESS Durhamand London 1992 ©1992DukeUniversityPress Firstprintinginpaperback,1996 Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper@ LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData appearonthelastprintedpageofthisbook. Thisbookisdedicated tothestudentsofSkidmoreCollege, towhomRonFiscusdevotedhislife asateacherandfriend and tothehopeforincreased fairness, reason, andjustice forwhichhestrove. contents ForewordbyStanley Fish ix Editor's Preface xiii Author's Preface xxi Introduction 1.The Central Argument The Meaning ofRacial Correlations Given Nonracist Assumptionsand OriginalPositions IS OfMolecules and Mobility 20 Required Assumptions and the Court 24 Race and CulturalEthnicityDistinguished 29 2.The InnocentPersons Argument Examined 37 The Innocent PersonShown to BeGuiltyWhen Claiming ProportionalSet-AsidePositions 37 The InnocentPersons Argumentand the Court 39 The Misplaced Emphasis on Innocenceand Blame 44 3. Proportionate and Disproportionate Quotas: The KeyDistinction Formalism S4 Entitlement S7 viii:Contents TheSupremeCourtand theProportionalityPrinciple 6I RelatedConstitutionalArguments 65 ScholarlyCommentandtheProportionalityPrinciple: RonaldDworkinandtheRightsofWhites 7I 4.Applyingthe Principles: TheSupremeCourtand AffirmativeAction 83 InGeneral 83 LocalversusNational Standards 85 ApplicantversusLaborPool 90 TheComplicationsofSeniorityandRepeatApplications inHiring andPromotions 92 Seniority, RepeatApplications, and Layoffs: TheStottsCaseRevisited 1°4 Epilogue 113 ~otes 129 Table ofCases 143 Index 145 foreword By Stanley Fish Although some time has passed since Ronald Fiscus's The Consti tutional Logic ofAffirmative Action was first published, its central thesis remains at once surprising and compelling. That thesis can be simplyput. Ifwebeginwiththe assumption thatminorities have a right towhattheywouldhave gainedproportionallyin anonracist society, affirmative actionisnotonlyfair buttheveryconditionof fairness. Forwithout the adjustments it mandates white males like Allan Bakke would reap benefits stolen from others. The boldness ofthisreasoningbecomesclearwhenyourealizethatnotonlydoes it challenge the "innocent persons" argument-the argument that affirmative action mandates the paying of reparations by persons innocent of specific harms- but it extends the category of guilty person to those white males who even apply for positions they would not have qualified for ifracism's effects had not beenwork ing. Suchan applicant, saysFiscus, "becomesan accomplicein, and abeneficiaryof, society's racism" (47). Moreover, ifhe is right, the policy ofrequiring "strictscrutiny" inaffirmativeactioncasesiswrong; forbyprovidingremediesonly when an individual has been directly injured in the present and ignoring the long history that has left individuals with different resources and opportunities, strict scrutiny gives a moral pass to a whole class offreeloaders who are allowed to retain goods they
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