On Thursday, the court found Harvard and the University of North Carolina guilty of doing what the court’s earlier rulings have repeatedly given universities muddled semi-permission to do: ignore the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws.”

The court did not “end” affirmative action. The court cannot stifle, by minutely policing, academia’s determination to continue administering racial preferences (and hence, necessarily, racial disadvantages). Thursday’s decision usefully affirms the principle of racial neutrality at a moment when public- and private-sector institutions are rejecting it.

But universities will respond to the court’s ruling by adopting more surreptitious and disguised preferences. This will deepen public cynicism about higher education, as its prestige leaks away.

[Think of these programs as Academia’s manner of controlling access to screen out potential dissenters and their panic makes a little more sense. Will, Ace, and others are correct in saying it’s not over, because it’s not, but Will hits the nail on the head as to the outcome. The more that universities and colleges adopt covert methods of discrimination, the worse their political standing becomes, and the more risk that arises for disinvestment. Don’t forget that the public broadly disapproves of affirmative action in college admissions already, a disapproval that comes from nearly every notable demographic. The more Academia lies to keep discriminating, the more they erode their political, cultural, and moral standing. Eventually that will cost them in money and power, especially if someone like DeSantis follows Biden into office and the GOP take over Congress fully. — Ed]