Minority Preferences in Law School Admissions

In addressing the subject of reverse discrimination, I want to caution at the outset against permitting the use of the word discrimination to prejudice consideration of the subject. Discrimination has, in recent years, become a bad word. It tends to be used as a shorthand for unjustifiably unequal treatment. In its original and still proper meaning, however, the word is quite neutral. Discrimination merely means differentiation. It comes from a Latin word that means to distinguish. Accordingly, when we discriminate-i.e., when we differentiate or distinguish-among people, the propriety of our action depends upon the reasons that we have acted as we have. If we wish to know whether an act of discrimination is proper, we must inquire whether the distinction we have made is consistent with our moral principles