The late Justice Powell on race in college admissions, and more college applicants don't answer the race question

While the University of Michigan admissions cases are pending before the Supreme Court, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has this report focusing on the role of Justice Lewis Powell, Jr., himself a Richmonder, on the Court's decision 25 years ago in the Bakke case. The article notes that "the court's ruling, expected at any time, will deal with many of the same ideas and legal issues with which Powell had wrestled," and quotes Powell's biographer, Professor Jeffries from U.Va. Law School, as saying that unlike the public acceptance of the integration of public schools, in the interim since the Bakke case "the country has not come overwhelmingly to one conclusion or the other, but remains poised in the ambiguity that Powell identified."

Also, the Washington Post has this interesting story about the increasing number of college applicants who for one reason or another do not answer the question on applications about race.