College Affirmative Action in Doubt After Supreme Court Fray (1)

The US Supreme Court’s conservative majority suggested a readiness to abolish the use of race in university admissions, casting doubt on policies supporters say are essential for ensuring diverse student bodies at the nation’s most selective institutions.

Hearing almost five hours of arguments in Washington on Monday, the justices showed deep divides -- largely, if not completely, along ideological lines -- as they heard challenges to affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard College.

Several of the conservatives suggested they saw affirmative action, which the court first upheld in 1978, as having run its course. They ...