In a plurality opinion in the 1978 Supreme Court case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Justice Lewis Powell held that colleges and universities could consider an applicant's race in the admissions process in order to attain a diverse student body. In a pair of cases that will be decided in the current term, the Supreme Court has…

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court brought to a close the country's decades-long experiment in affirmative action in a pair of closely watched cases--"Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College" and "Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina"--and overturned the use of racial…

Ruling 5 to 4, the Supreme Court finds a middle ground in the sensitive Bakke case. It gives something to everybody, outlawing strict racial quotas but permitting race to be considered in college admissions policies. (Editor)

The Bakke case raised profound and critical issues for America, and the results of the Supreme Court decision will extend far beyond flaws in medical admissions policies. The Bakke decision is an economic one, with which affirmative action programs are incompatible; affirmative action programs involve a degree of economic engineering that the…