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THE Bush administration has decided to support race and gender preferences, in the very first case involving them to come before the Supreme Court this year. And this decision is being greeted on the right with what can only be called wishful thinking.

The case, Adarand v. Mineta, is the latest skirmish in a long-running legal battle over a Department of Transportation race-preference program in highway construction that began, interestingly enough, under the first Bush administration. In 1989, Adarand Constructors, Inc., was the low-bidding subcontractor on a highway program in Colorado—but lost out to a Hispanic-owned company, because the DOT gave financial incentives to the main contractor to hire a “disadvantaged business enterprise” (DBE). Adarand sued on the grounds that this was a naked race preference and thus unconstitutional—and the case was shuttled back and forth among various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, over the ensuing twelve years.

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John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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THE Bush administration has decided to support race and gender preferences, in the very first case involving them to come before the Supreme Court this year. And this decision is being greeted on the right with what can only be called wishful thinking.

The case, Adarand v. Mineta, is the latest skirmish in a long-running legal battle over a Department of Transportation race-preference program in highway construction that began, interestingly enough, under the first Bush administration. In 1989, Adarand Constructors, Inc., was the low-bidding subcontractor on a highway program in Colorado—but lost out to a Hispanic-owned company, because the DOT gave financial incentives to the main contractor to hire a “disadvantaged business enterprise” (DBE). Adarand sued on the grounds that this was a naked race preference and thus unconstitutional—and the case was shuttled back and forth among various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, over the ensuing twelve years.