Good Law | Bad Law

What is affirmative action? Why is it so controversial? And moreover, has there been progress?   Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Melvin I. Urofsky, an author and a professor emeritus of history at Virginia Commonwealth University, to discuss the history and ongoing controversy of affirmative action. Mel’s new book on the topic, The Affirmative Action Puzzle: A Living History from Reconstruction to Today, traces the evolution of affirmative action through the struggle for racial equality from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 through today’s tumultuous times.    In today’s episode, Aaron and Mel discuss the big questions surrounding affirmative action, its historical context, and its implications today, delving deep in to the ideas of diversity, “soft affirmative action” compared to “hard affirmative action,” inequality, cultural biases, and more. Throughout “The Affirmative Action Puzzle,” Mel writes about the affirmative action