Allan Bakke, a 38 year old white engineer, was twice denied admission to the medical school at the University of California at Davis. To ensure minority representation in the student body, the university had set aside sixteen seats for minority applicants in each medical school class of one hundred students. Challenging the set-aside as a violation of his constitutional righ to equal protection of the laws, Bakke contended that he would have been admitted had it not been for this rigid preference system. In each year his application was rejected, the school had accepted some minority applicants with qualifications inferior to Bakke's.*

*(Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, 3rd ed., Joan Biskupic. 1997. Congressional Quarterly: Washington D.C., p.663)