[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 29 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[Pages 1264-1265]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Memorandum on Affirmative Action

July 19, 1995

Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

Subject: Evaluation of Affirmative Action Programs

    This Administration is committed to expanding the economy, to 
strengthening programs that support children and families, and to 
vigorous, effective enforcement of laws prohibiting discrimination. 
These commitments reflect bedrock values--equality, opportunity, and 
fair play--which extend to all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, 
or gender.
    While our Nation has made enormous strides toward eliminating 
inequality and barriers to opportunity, the job is not complete. As the 
United States Supreme Court recognized only one month ago in Adarand 
Constructors, Inc. v. Pena. ``[t]he unhappy persistence of both the 
practice and the lingering effects of racial discrimination against 
minority groups in this country is an unfortunate reality, and 
government is not disqualified from acting in response to it.'' This 
Administration will continue to support affirmative measures that 
promote opportunities in employment, education, and government 
contracting for Americans subject to discrimination or its continuing 
effects. In every instance, we will seek reasonable ways to achieve the 
objectives of inclusion and antidiscrimination without specific reliance 
on group membership. But where our legitimate objectives cannot be 
achieved through such means, the Federal Government will continue to 
support lawful consideration of race, ethnicity, and gender under 
programs that are flexible, realistic, subject to reevaluation, and 
fair.

[[Page 1265]]

    Accordingly, in all programs you administer that use race, 
ethnicity, or gender as a consideration to expand opportunity or provide 
benefits to members of groups that have suffered discrimination, I ask 
you to take steps to ensure adherence to the following policy 
principles. The policy principles are that any program must be 
eliminated or reformed if it:
(a)         creates a quota;
(b)         creates preferences for unqualified individuals;
(c)         creates reverse discrimination; or
(d)         continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have 
            been achieved.
    In addition, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Adarand 
Constructors, Inc. v. Pena requires strict scrutiny of the 
justifications for, and provisions of, a broad range of existing race-
based affirmative action programs. You recently received a detailed 
legal analysis of Adarand from the Department of Justice. Consistent 
with that guidance, I am today instructing each of you to undertake, in 
consultation with and pursuant to the overall direction of the Attorney 
General, an evaluation of programs you administer that use race or 
ethnicity in decision making. With regard to programs that affect more 
than one agency, the Attorney General shall determine, after 
consultations, which agency shall take the lead in performing this 
analysis.
    Using all of the tools at your disposal, you should develop any 
information that is necessary to evaluate whether your programs are 
narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest, as required under 
Adarand's strict scrutiny standard. Any program that does not meet the 
constitutional standard must be reformed or eliminated.
                                            William J. Clinton