Since the 1960s, the U.S. government has endorsed affirmative action to counteract the effects of discrimination on women and minorities. Affirmative action policies increase female and minority representation in the workforce and in public university populations—typically by including race and gender as factors in hiring and college admissions decisions. Critics, however, maintain that the use of any kind of racial preference is a form of discrimination. Many point to a situation at the University of Texas Law School as recent proof that affirmative action is unfair. Four white students sued the law school in 1992, claiming that they had been denied admission so that less-qualified minorities could attend the school. As a result of this lawsuit, the school was required to reveal its 1992 entrance exam scores. Minority students with lower test scores had in fact been admitted to...