Although fixed racial quotas and racial balancing are not necessary to achieving this goal, the consideration of an applicant's race during the admissions process necessarily is. This is pure sophistry. The consideration of an applicant's race is racial balancing. The ruling, which directly contradicts a 1996 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision against affirmative action at the University of Texas at Austin, may take this hotly contested issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. One thing should be clear.
Diversity is a laudable goal.
No one disputes the importance of admitting students from all racial, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds to universities. But fairness mandates that such considerations be taken into account caeteris paribus all other things being equal. But such a system is unlikely to prevail in our age of ingrained judicial activism. Duggan's ruling is just another instance of a judge overstepping his bounds by making, rather than interpreting, law. If you care about democracy at all, that should scare you.