Chapter 16 of a book on school law provides a legal overview of employment discrimination on the basis of race. A litany of cases has been adjudicated or are currently in litigation. Selected cases are reviewed briefly and arguments for and against the affirmative action guidelines are presented. The main area of complaint about the guidelines is their controversial quota, or percentage, systems. A number of cases are discussed that concern quotas, among them the Regents of the University of California v. Allen Bakke and Weber v. Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation. The author concludes that the courts are sending out confusing signals and that a ruling on constitutional grounds under the Fourteenth Amendment would help to clarify the apparent conflicts. (Author/MLF)