If you got your degree from a prestigious Ivy League college such as Harvard or Yale, then the tendrils of Ivy League privilege swirl about you like an expensive cologne for the rest of your life.  And you want your children to smell just as sweet.

If you are an academic at such a place, you get secondhand smoke, and this secures you in your own conceit.  If you are an administrator, the aroma is getting a bit wispy, but the salary is great.

These mighty institutions are powered by hefty fees and huge endowments.  These latter arise because, as the graduates make money, they are much inclined to support their club, and so, typically, endowments of these universities are in the region of scores of billions of dollars.

A wonderful arrangement!  America at its best.  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the American notion of fairness suggests that the scarce places should go to the most able children.  Unfortunately, the children of the graduates do not always fall into this bright category.  I'm shocked that you didn't see this immediately: intelligence is not automatically heritable, and the children always revert toward the mean.  So, to make the club work, we will grant places to these special legacy children, who certainly are special but perhaps not so bright.  Seems a bit off, but you've gotta keep your eye on the endowments.

Institutionalized academics in these institutions don't have a clue about how the world works, but they surely know what they are supposed to feel and believe.  So they feel strongly about affirmative action, and the club has to cater to this need.  Some places and bursaries must go to children of African origin, even if these children have not demonstrated greater ability than those with white privilege who are rejected.  That's the trouble with omelets — it's hell on eggs.  The affirmative program really doesn't cost much, and just look at the virtue you can signal.

So far, so good.  But then there are the troublesome children of Asian origin.  They have a culture of working really hard, and although, of course, it supposedly doesn't mean anything, their average I.Q. is about four points higher than the American average.  We don't know why, but something in the mix produces outstandingly intelligent children.  Obviously, the institutions should be delighted to gobble them up and raise their standards.  Alas, no.

They don't want these chaps in the club.  I can't imagine why.  An uncharitable thought is that it would be for racist reasons because certainly, the discrimination is based purely on race.  There is no other basis, as seen by the Supreme Court.  But surely, they don't despise Asians in the club.  We all know that their culture values quietness, politeness, veneration of elders, and hard work.  Surely it couldn't be because these fellows are not quite what they should be, racially speaking.  Surely, it's not to protect a bastion of WASPiness.  I can't understand it at all!

The universities have kept themselves on an even keel by applying racism in the nicest possible way.  Use perceptions of race to discriminate in favor of Africans and against Asians.  After all, they've been doing it for years.  They've had to be a bit creative, but they are very clever chaps.  Look at the name on the letterhead!

And along comes Trump's Supreme Court with his appointees who are just plain smart and cultured and honorable.  Just lovely human beings — the best of the best of the best.  But they are hell on upsetting apple carts.  You gotta love it!

Thomas Lifson adds:

Based on almost 20 years at Harvard as a graduate student and faculty member, I believe with some assurance that the elite schools see themselves as producing not just the nation's, but the world's ruling class.  They wouldn't use that politically tinged term, and would prefer "elite" or "meritocracy."  And they fear an angry, alienated, and potentially violent racial underclass that could make life unbearable at some point in the not so distant future if they feel excluded.  They mask the fear with rhetoric about social justice, equity, and the like and express their fear in more acceptable terms like "responsibility."

They also have, since the early 20th century, deliberately mixed meritocratically selected smart, ambitious, and hardworking members of the middle and working class with the "legacy" aristocrats who have wealth and social position, thereby strengthening the ruling class alumni with fresh blood and helping along the new entrants with valuable connections.  It's worked extremely well, and now they want to integrate more African heritage members into that system.  For their own and the ruling class's security.