Racial discrimination at Harvard

 Washington Free Beacon:

In Asian Discrimination Appeal, Harvard Talks out of Both Sides of Its Mouth 

School claims efforts to racially balance students don't constitute racial quotas

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In other words, Harvard says its admissions committee does not balance the incoming class based on race. It merely tracks all sorts of demographic information about applicants and responds as a body when it detects that a particular group is undergoing "declines in representation." It’s the kind of thin and suspect distinction that has animated judicial critics of affirmative action for decades.

And Harvard’s explanation seems to cop to racial balancing in any event. The baseline against which "declines in representation" are measured is foggy and suggests Harvard is using quotas, which the Court has forbidden.
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Law professors call this kind of argument a "distinction without a difference."  In the past, the courts have let the universities get away with the sophistry because they support this type of discrimination.  The affirmative action programs actually hurt the minorities who make the cut because they are put into an environment where they are not as prepared.