Affirmative action lives.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Fears that the U.S. Supreme Court would bulldoze the nation's racial landscape proved unfounded Monday when a divided court reaffirmed and clarified rules outlined in a landmark affirmative action decision nearly a quarter-century ago.

Instead of wiping out affirmative action in higher education - and, as a result, reducing the number of blacks in colleges and graduate schools - a divided court issued two balanced, thoughtful rulings that reinforce the law's commitment to race-conscious policies in academia and elsewhere

By declaring "that student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions," the court recognized that affirmative action has served the nation well and has not yet outlived its usefulness.

While justices made clear that the nation's public universities must be judicious in how they use race to select students, Monday's rulings also recognized that schools must be allowed to seek diversity if they are to achieve their missions.

``This court has long recognized that 'education is the very foundation of good citizenship,' '' Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote, quoting from the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling of nearly 50 years ago. ``For this reason, the diffusion of knowledge and opportunity through public institutions of higher education must be accessible to all individuals regardless of race or ethnicity.''

There will no doubt be speculation in the days to come that the court's split decisions cast a cloud of uncertainty on the future of affirmative action. Not so. The court clearly and unmistakably left intact the precedent it established in the 1978 Bakke ruling, which declared racial quotas unconstitutional but upheld more subtle, individualized forms of affirmative action.

By a 5-4 vote, the court upheld the admissions policy used by the University of Michigan's law school. The policy permits the school to consider race among other factors in deciding which applicants are accepted and which are not in its efforts to achieve a ``critical mass'' of minorities.

By a 6-3 vote, the court also struck down Michigan's undergraduate policy that used what justices described as a "mechanical" point system that awarded candidates for color. Justices said the university's policy, which automatically gives 20 points - one-fifth the amount needed to guarantee admission - to every underrepresented minority applicant, is a blunderbuss approach that violates the Constitution's guarantee against discrimination.

But the court also made abundantly clear that the undergraduate school can go back to the drawing board and come up with a more subtle and flexible approach that would pass constitutional muster. In other words, the university can promote racial diversity on campus but a point system is not the right tool for getting that job done.

It was a heartening ruling from a court that is far more conservative now than when it ruled on the Bakke case 25 years ago. Conservatives had fervently hoped that the court would issue a ruling in the Michigan case that would sound the death knell for consideration of race in any and all government decisions.

Instead, a court majority endorsed a principle of diversity that has served this nation well for three decades. It's an affirmation that, in the words of University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, "will be heard across the land from our college classrooms to our corporate boardrooms.''