Trump is restoring merit — by slaying rules that enforce reverse discrimination

White House has taken the most important step it can to restore meritocracy to society, says Julian Zelizer .

Disparate-impact theory holds that if a neutral, color-blind standard of achievement or behavior has a disproportionately negative effect on underrepresented minorities, it violates civil-rights laws.

Zelizer: It has been used in hundreds of cases, all across the country, to alter our society in profound ways.

That will trigger a long-overdue debate: Is the United States still disfigured by systemic racism that requires the dismantling of meritocratic standards? Advertisement Or are we ready to live in a nation where we can be confident that the doctor who walks through an emergency room door is there because of his medical expertise, not his race? Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of “ When Race Trumps Merit .” Adapted from City Journal ..