A Chance to Repair the Law: Grutter Deference Never Made Any Sense.

The "law" as it stands today is in serious need of … uh … clarification. In Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the Court upheld the race-preferential admissions policies of the University of Michigan Law School in a very peculiar way. In a 5-4 decision, it agreed with the petitioning students that the Law School was discriminating on the basis of race. There was really no denying that. It therefore agreed that strict scrutiny must be applied. But then the Court turned around and deferred to the judgment of the University of Michigan on whether the need for diversity is a "compelling interest." Oh my. Deference? That's the opposite of strict scrutiny.