Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Representative Charles Canady (R-FL) have introduced legislation in the U.S. Congress that would eliminate federal affirmative action programs. The measure, deceptively titled the "Civil Rights Act of 1997," has an additional 65 House sponsors and two Senate sponsors. The bill was passed out of the House Constitution subcommittee and is now in the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill is similar to anti-affirmative action legislation introduced in the last session of Congress, but this year's bill does not include a section that would have allowed more sex discrimination by lowering the standard of review in sex discrimination cases.

"During the last Congress feminists exposed the damage that the anti-affirmative action legislation would do to sex discrimination law," said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority. "While this year's bill no longer contains the clause legalizing sex discrimination, this deceptive legislation would still prohibit the federal government from setting up goals and timetables for hiring more women and minorities as a way to eliminate sex and race discrimination practices."

President Clinton recently affirmed his support for affirmative action, but did not include any mention of women's rights. California Governor Pete Wilson attacked Clinton's support for affirmative action, saying that affirmative action undermined equality by granting "preferences" to women and people of color.

Meanwhile in California, following the University of California's 1995 decision not to use race as one factor out of many factors in admissions, minority admissions to the University of California law schools have dropped by almost a third. This year 685 minority applicants were accepted, compared to 946 last year. In Texas, following a lawsuit prohibiting the University of Texas Law School from considering race as a factor in admissions, admissions of blacks and Latinos dropped 70%.

While affirmative action opponents say that the drop in minority admissions reflects the fact that minority applicants are less qualified, others disagree. "Affirmative action is not a 'hand-up' for women and minorities," said Katherine Spillar, National Coordinator of the Feminist Majority. "It is designed to offset the race and sex bias that is embedded in the system."

A national study of black law school students by Professor Linda Wightman showed that while only 20% of the students would have been admitted based on test scores and grades alone, once they were in law school there was no significant difference between blacks and whites in graduating from law school or passing the bar. "The LSAT, the SAT, and other standardized tests have been proved to be biased against women and minorities," said Spillar. "The admissions standards used by law schools are keeping out minorities and women who are fully able to compete."

While prohibiting affirmative action, University of California Regents are continuing to allow the university to give preferences to students who are friends or relatives of VIPs or high donors to the university. The University of California system has said they have admitted less-qualified students who are friends or relatives of influential people or high donors to the University. A proposal to ban these practices was removed from the agenda at a recent Regents' meeting. University officials said they did not want their hands tied when dealing with large donors.