Yale and Princeton have published the racial breakdown of their entering classes. They show that both institutions have violated the ban on racial discrimination in college admissions that the Supreme Court affirmed last year. ...

Undoubtedly, Yale has changed the pretexts it uses to explain its preference for blacks with credentials vastly inferior to rejected whites and, especially, Asian-Americans. Presumably, it is relying on language from the Supreme Court permitting consideration of barriers that applicants say they have overcome.

But the Court also warned that colleges can’t do by indirection that which they are legally barred from doing directly. No amount of alleged barrier-overcoming could justify Yale’s new numbers.