In one of their most highly anticipated rulings of the year, the Supreme Court struck down a firm

revaction as was widely expected. Shortly before the decision came out, I had a conversation

with the professor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and my capacity as a TV correspondent

for MSNBC. We talked about the history of this policy and the stakes, so I wanted to share

this conversation with you here on the pod as well. We'll be covering the ruling and

what it means more in the podcast soon, but for now, enjoy this bonus episode of Intel

America and check out MSNBC.com for more coverage. And if you notice the audio quality is a

little different, we did this interview one soon.

Okay, I am Karen McClellan. I'm director of the advocacy for racial and civil justice clinic at the University of

Pennsylvania Carrier School of Law. So give us some of the history behind affirmative action. Where did this idea come from?

Wars the early intention? Sure affirmative action was originally an act

that under executive order under President Kennedy and then under President Johnson. And initially it was

attended to have a provision for remedying the impacts of discrimination. This was during the civil rights era,

right as the civil rights act and other legislation was passing. And it was a recognition that it wasn't enough

after all of these decades of discrimination to just say and now we're equal and it's illegal. Instead,

there had to be some recognition of the ongoing legacy of discrimination when you've had this long history of slavery

and then Jim Crow that impacts all aspects of American life.

And so how was affirmative action applied to academic institutions and what was the impact?

Essentially what you had was decades of exclusion based on race and colleges and universities.

The same ways that we had under the laws known as de-jure segregation in public schools.

There was also segregation in public universities and in private institutions of higher education.

And so essentially the question was how now do we move forward and provide opportunity when there has been this long history

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