Universities defending affirmative action on educational-benefit grounds may not sincerely believe the educational-benefit rationale.

Now consider four points. First, the promiscuous use of “diversity” in the argument for affirmative action opens the door to waffling and equivocation. Students learn through “exposure to widely diverse people, culture, ideas, and viewpoints” announces the Fortune 100 brief. Of course. But the issue at hand is racial diversity. Wrapping the latter into the former is not an aid to precision.[26] Second, can we imagine that the University of Michigan or the University of Texas would abandon its af