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The rulings of the US Supreme Court in the two University of Michigan affirmative action cases, delivered on June 23, are as surprising as they are important. The court, albeit in a split decision, came down firmly in support of affirmative action. More specifically, it stated unambiguously that the nation has a compelling interest in promoting diversity in higher education, and it approved the use of “race” as a plus factor in determining who should be admitted to selective colleges and universities. Speaking for the majority in the Law School case, Justice Sandra O’Connor did not just validate the tenuous position of Justice Lewis Powell in the 1978 Bakke case (which served as the thin reed upon which racial/ethnic preferences in educational admissions were based for the last 25 years). She greatly strengthened Powell’s position – both by articulating forcefully the rationale for educational institutions to take account of race and ethnicity, and by replacing Powell’s lone voice in 1978 with a court majority in 2003. The fact that a larger majority of the court (including O’Connor) decided against the procedure used to favour under-represented minority applicants to Michigan’s undergraduate colleges does little