This speech focuses upon the issues involved in several recent court rulings against affirmative action programs. Among the cases reviewed are "Weber v. Kaiser Aluminum," concerned with the hiring of minority employees at a plant in Gramercy, Louisiana; two cases, in Tampa and Detroit, challenging police department hiring and promotion policies; and the minority business enterprise provision of the Public Works Employment Act of 1977 which calls for a certain percentage of construction industry funds to go to black businesssmen. A number of considerations in these reverse discrimination cases are reviewed, and alternatives are briefly examined. Arguments which support the government's defense of affirmative action programs must be tailored to the specific situations in which they will operate if the goal of equal employment opportunity is to be reached. (GC)