The Equal Protection Clause--An Individual Right To Equal Protection of the Law A Review of the Law of Racial Preferences in Employment Affirmative Action and Disparate Impact

The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides an individual right for each person to equal treatment by state and local governments without regard to race. Programs such as affirmative action and theories of liability such as disparate impact violate that protection by permitting or requiring state and local governments to take race into account as a basis for differential treatment. Past and present efforts by the Supreme Court to circumvent the Equal Protection Clause, whether in the name of segregation or affirmative action and disparate impact, have impeded racial progress and often made the nation's race relations much worse. The Supreme Court should remove itself from approving any racial preferences or penalties, other than those necessary to enforce the federal guarantee of actual racial neutrality that is required by the Equal Protection Clause. History informs us that this was the actual intent of the Equal Protection Clause and that intent should be honored, validated and enforced.