FLASHBACK: Remember when the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether race-preferential affirmative action policies at colleges and universities were MANDATORY? The case was Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. The April 22, 2014 decision came out okay: Michigan voters were permitted to prohibit racial preferences.   But there were dissents by Sotomayor and Ginsburg.

If you are wondering about the respondent’s peculiar name, the answer is that, yes, they were very serious about the “By Any Means Necessary” part. “BAMN” (as it calls itself) is a violent offshoot of the Revolutionary Workers League. But even offshoots of the Revolutionary Workers League make it into the Supreme Court sometimes.

Pre-decision, I wrote a short essay about the case (and a bit about BAMN) in The Parade of Horribles Lives.