In 1996 voters in California approved the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a measure that forbids the use of race, gender, or ethnicity as criteria in state hiring or public university admissions. No longer would businesses and universities be required to adhere to affirmative action guidelines that mandated minority representation in the workforce or student body. The passage of the CCRI effectively put an end to more than thirty years of affirmative action in the state of California, and sparked a fiery debate over the continued need for affirmative action programs. Affirmative action was part of the legislation that came out of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. It was designed by federal lawmakers to ensure that a certain percentage of African Americans (the program was later expanded to include women and other minorities) were represented in business, higher education, and government offices. When affirmative action was first...