Given the chance to shoot down affirmative action, the Supreme Court, in a 7 to 1 decision, chose not to (PDF). But it did say that a lower court decision that had approved the University of Texas’ affirmative action program needed to be revisited, with the justices in the majority noting that this appeals court had not applied a stringent enough rule when reviewing the UT program. In short, the court said: affirmative action is indeed permissible, but only in instances when the public benefit is narrowly defined and justified—and there is strict scrutiny of such factors.

The decision is mostly about how the lower court handled the case, which involved a white student whose application to the college was denied. (For more background on the case see here.) The majority noted, “The reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity.” And the appeals court, it ruled, did not:

Rather than perform this searching examination, the Fifth Circuit held petitioner could challenge only whether the University’s decision to use race as an admissions factor “was made in good faith.” It presumed that the school had acted in good faith and gave petitioner the burden of rebutting that presumption.

In the moments after the decision was released, legal experts disagreed on how much impact it could have on the use of affirmative action at both public and private universities and colleges (though the case only directly applied to public institutions). But just as important, the court bypassed the opportunity to reverse previous rulings and eviscerate affirmative action.

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