This past June, the Supreme Court handed down a couple of decisions that were widely seen as lending aid and comfort to those who support the practice of “affirmative action,” i.e., discrimination on the basis of race or some other token of alleged victimhood. At issue were two lawsuits challenging admissions policies at the University of Michigan. The decisions were mixed—the court ruled (by a margin of 5–4) in favor of letting stand the law school’s policy of discriminating on the basis of race, while it partially reversed (6–3) a similar scheme in undergraduate admissions. Mixed or not, the university hailed the rulings as “a major victory.” Quoth Mary Sue Coleman, the university’s president:

This is a tremendous victory for the University of Michigan, for all of higher education, and for the hundreds of groups and individuals who supported us. A majority of the ...