Former Acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger and Supreme Court maven Dahlia Lithwick have an interesting exchange on the Michigan cases over at Slate. Both are fairly liberal — Dellinger served in the Clinton Administration — both are devout supporters of affirmative action, but they are split over Justice O’Connor’s majority opinion. Dellinger finds it a masterful sequel to Justice Powell’s (in)famous Bakke decision. Lithwick, on the other hand, finds the opinion “crazy” and writes “intellectual honesty doesn’t let me accept O’Connor’s basic ends-justifies-the-means approach to upholding” affirmative action (see last Monday posting). With luck, their exchange will continue today.