From a reader:

Jonah –
One other point the liberals miss: their legacy-vs.-affirmative-action argument amounts to what George Will would call a “crashing non-sequitur.” It makes no sense to balance affirmative action against the “legacy” programs that offer scholarships to wealthy offspring of alumni. Affirmative action policies don’t take spots away from “legacies” (who are generally wealthy enough to get in regardless of affirmative action), they take them away from poor and middle-class applicants who would otherwise have gotten in on merit alone. Affirmative action doesn’t level the “legacy” playing field, it merely punishes meretricious applicants who happen to be neither minorities nor legacies.