affirmative action

UG先生に教えていただいた、アメリカ史の中で、とても重要な言葉を取り上げたいと思います。

Supreme Court, 7-1, Orders Lower Court to Reconsider Texas Affirmative Action Case

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that lower courts did not apply a sufficiently high level of scrutiny to the University of Texas’s use of race in admissions decisions, sending the case back to one of those lower courts to be reconsidered.
The decision will most likely have few immediate implications for affirmative action programs around the country, including in Texas. But it may represent the start of a new wave of challenges to the use of race in admissions decisions.
In a 7-to-1 decision, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy writing the majority opinion, the court ruled that the lower court did not use a legal standard known as strict scrutiny to assess the university’s program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/justices-halt-affirmative-action-at-university-of-

affirmative actionは、公民権運動の流れで取られた措置であり、「積極的差別是正措置」のことを指します。(『ジーニアス英和辞典 第4版』大修館)

Websterでは"an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women; also : a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons"と定義されています。(Nat)