Hopwood and Proposition 209:Judicial and Legislative Intervention in American Public HigherEducation.

The United States has a long history of battles over racial equity in public education. The most current debate has centered on affirmative action in higher education, with special focus on reverse discrimination. As universities craft admissions policies, much attention is given to what types of policies will stand up to legal challenges. This calculus on the part of university administrators exemplifies how judicial decisions and legislative mandates can affect bureaucratic decision making and public policy. This study examines the effect that these decisions and mandates have had on policy outcomes, namely, minority representation of black and Latino undergraduate students. These analyses will be conducted using state and university level data, collected from the US Department of Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]