In this essay on Minding the Campus, history professor K. C. Johnson offers a sharp analysis of the already much-discussed Sixth Circuit opinion striking down Michigan’s Proposal 2, passed in 2006.

I’ll just add one point. The majority makes it seem as if Prop 2 were a Goliath-versus-David match that now leaves “minorities” almost helpless. The fact is that the opposition to Prop 2 included all of the heavy hitters in Michigan politics, and opponents outspent the backers of the measure by something like 3 to 1. They fought against the no-preferences policy and lost in 2006. Nothing prevents them from trying to reverse the outcome by a new ballot proposal.