The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday put the top back on the can of worms it opened this March when it granted certiorari in the case of Adarand Constructors v. Mineta (see WIT for November 7, 2001). In an unsigned opinion, the justices dismissed the case---in which the plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of an affirmative action program no longer in effect in the plaintiff's state of business---as "improvidently granted." The Supreme Court is unlikely to gain much of a reprieve from affirmative action issues, however, as plenty of affirmative action cases without the inherent flaws of the Adarand case are currently before lower courts.
See "Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge in Its Main Affirmative Action Case", LINDA GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, November 27, 2001