In a Pope Center piece, I take a look at the Supreme Court’s non-decision in Fisher v. Texas.

I agree with Justice Thomas that Grutter should have been overruled because, purported educational benefits or not, government institutions are not allowed to categorize people based on their ancestry and treat some groups differently than others. He sees through the fairy tale claims about those “benefits” but would have decided the case once and for all on solid equal-protection grounds.

Now the case goes back to be re-litigated. Texas will try to conjure up lots of silly research (just the the University of Michigan did) to prove that racial preferences make the country a nicer place. Maybe the judges will also pay attention to the solid arguments that preferences are damaging. In any event, the case is likely to wind up back at the Court in a few years. No doubt preference advocates are hoping that there will be five votes in favor of maintaining the fiction that “affirmative action” is good by that time. That’s a worrisome prospect.