This book has two principal aims: to clarify the topical and controversial issue of reverse discrimination and to reach some conclusions about the rights and wrongs involved in this issue. Focusing mainly on preferential hiring, the book explicitly and extensively addresses the law and the institutional context of the issues. Examination of the types of arguments used in defense of preferential hiring and of such concepts as compensatory justice, rights, social utility, distributive justice, and equal opportunity leads up to a detailed discussion of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Order 11246 (1965), which established affirmative action programs. The book also examines the Supreme Court's approach to the "equal protection" clause of the 14th Amendment and shows how the Court's doctrine can make room for constitutionally permissible uses of race, including racially preferential hiring. The final part of the book presents a moral theory of constitutional equality that accommodates much of the Supreme Court's doctrine and justifies the occasional use of race in social policy. The conclusion reached is that there is no absolute principled (constitutional) bar to some kinds of reverse discrimination, but that such practices may still be morally undesirable. (TE)