The current trend in equal-protection law is to reject the use of race-based, numerical formulas. However, in "Wessmann," a chief federal district judge in Massachusetts allowed race-based set-asides in the admission policy at Boston's three examination high schools. This decision, which is on appeal, has implications for school…

Recent court decisions have rejected fostering of diversity as a compelling state interest. In a 1999 case (Brewer v West Irondequoit School District), Federal District Judge David Larimer ordered the West Irondequoit Central School District to admit a previously rejected (white) transfer student. Using class, not race, as an admission criterion…

When a qualified white student was denied admission to an elite public school, her father sued the Boston Public School Committee, claiming the new, racially based admissions policy violated the Equal Protection Clause. The First Circuit Court reversed a lower court decision for the school committee, because the admission policy served no…