Case study The decline of Affirmative Action

Leading the attack on AA has been the The American Civil Rights Institute a pressure group, created in 1996 by Ward Connerly, a black opponent of Affirmative Action. It funds state campaigns and despite strong opposition from groups such as the NAACP, the Institute has been highly successful. Five states - Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma - held votes in 2008, with only Colorado voting to maintain affirmative action.

There has also been a series of successful challenges to this policy in the Supreme Court,

· University of California v Bakke 1978 - effectively ended the use of quotas

· Fisher v Texas 2013 - ordered strict scrutiny of the University of Texas use of affirmative action (although the University policy was upheld in Fisher II in 2016)

· Schuette v Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action 2013 - rejected a challenge to Michigan's right to end affirmative action using a state initiative.