There’s plenty of data to underscore concerns that Asian Americans are unduly affected by affirmative action. But quantifying the effects of such policies is notoriously thorny. That’s true more broadly, as well, in part because of how the issue has been litigated.

The Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas concluded that a college seeking to produce a diverse student body can only use race in admissions if all other strategies fail. And even then, it can only use race as one consideration in admissions decisions.

In other words, that college is to assess a given applicant holistically, taking into account her academic performance, her geographic location, her proposed major, her life story, and her racial background, among other qualities. That in itself makes it really hard to suss out whether a given race-conscious admissions policy discriminates against an entire race of students.

As Peter Joy, a professor at Washington University Law, said in a statement Thursday: “The fact is, these admissions policies are not discriminating against white applicants any more than colleges and universities [are] favoring applicants who have been active in student government, or those with track records of doing service in their communities.”

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