"There is disagreement about whether Grutter was consistent with the principles of equal protection.... But the parties here do not ask the Court to revisit that aspect of Grutter’s holding."

The decorous Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority in today's opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas, refraining even from saying the word "overrule."

Revisit... as if we'll be paying a social call.

ADDED: Here's Justice Breyer at oral argument, nailing Fisher's lawyer down that he's not asking to overrule Grutter:




Later, when Fisher's lawyer said "I think you can fashion a result in this case which may or may not have to, quote, 'overrule' Grutter," Justice Sotomayor came out with the memorable line: "So you don't want to overrule Grutter, you just want to gut it":



So did the Court gut Grutter today? No, of course, not. That sounds so brutal. But it laid Grutter out on the carving board and advised the Court of Appeals to sharpen the knives.

ALSO: I'm rereading my own notes from my spring Conlaw2 class, when I taught Grutter along with the oral argument in Fisher and I find this, referring to Justice O'Connor's opinion in Grutter:

Is she damaging the SS test by applying it with deference and not attending to the loose fit between purported goal and policy adopted? (How can you gut it if it lacked guts?)