The use of affirmative action in UNC admissions processes has been under review since Students for Fair Admissions filed a lawsuit against the University in November 2014. While this case deals directly with the consideration of race in public university admissions processes, it is unclear how the outcome will affect affirmative action for employment.
SFFA v. University of North Carolina was brought to the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments on Oct. 31. The private organization alleged that UNC violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by considering race in admissions.
Jeffrey M. Hirsch, a law professor at UNC, specializes in labor and employment law. He said the Supreme Court has not dealt with an employment-related affirmative action case in decades.
He also noted the distinction between affirmative action in the public and private sectors of employment, a distinction that also matters in cases of higher education.
“I think the public sector employers are already more limited in the type of affirmative action that they can engage in, and in particular, whether they can engage in affirmative action at all, as opposed to the education context, or at least higher ed,” Hirsch said.
Traditionally, in the employment context, diversity has not been a justification for affirmative action, according to Hirsch. Instead, it has been used as a remedial option.
“In other words, because some of the original affirmative...
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