The Case for Minority Participation in Reverse Discrimination Litigation

Author / Creator

Chen, Edward

Part of

California law review, 1979-01, Vol.67 (1), p.191-229

DOI

10.2307/3480094

Summary

• The prizes in the reverse discrimination suits are the allocations of many educational, employment, and economic opportunities. Beneath the issues is the unresolved tension between the ideals of substantive justice and formal equality. The Bakke reverse discrimination case is based on a poorly developed set of facts and legal issues. The participation of beneficiaries of the programs and policies challenged in reverse discrimination suits at all levels of litigation is a possible remedy to the problem. An examination of intervention as a right under Federal Rule of Court Procedure 24(a) as the most viable procedural tool for assuring beneficiary participation sheds some light on the problem. The 3 justifications for permitting minority beneficiaries of affirmative action programs to take part in reverse discrimination litigation include: 1. a jurisprudential policy of protecting the integrity and efficacy of the adjudicatory process by guaranteeing full treatment of all relevant facts and issues, 2. a need to provide fairness and due process to beneficiaries by adequate representation, and 3. the notion that minority participation in reverse discrimination suits is doctrinally consistent with theories of interest representation.