Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, Wednesday, Oct. 10: The Supreme Court famously battled its way to a détente over affirmative action in 2003. In a pair of split-the-baby decisions, two different majorities struck down the use of quotas that favored historically disadvantaged racial minorities in public college admissions, but allowed schools to use race as one unquantified factor among many. Writing that second ruling, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor proclaimed her expectation that “25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today."