Affirmative Action.

Since the 1970s many governments, businesses, and universities routinely used affirmative action policies in hiring and admissions to correct the lingering burdens of racism and gender discrimination. Beginning in the 1980s the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist, an opponent of affirmative action, began limiting such programs and making it harder to prove employment discrimination. In an effort to overrule the position of the Justices, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which voided some attempts by the Court to scale back laws and policies designed to redress prior discrimination. The statute, however, prohibited the use of quotas in hiring, promotions, and college admissions. In 1996 the Supreme Court refused to review a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Hopwood v. Texas that declared unconstitutional the race-based preference admissions system used by the University of Texas...