Life Imitates the Volokh Conspiracy

A reader reminded me of this blog post Jan. 24, 2022: Will the Supreme Court Ask Harvard How it Justifies Treating "Asian Americans" as a Homogenous Category? I wrote: "I'm not quite sure what Harvard's lawyer would or could say if asked why, say, Filipino, Nepalese, and Mongolian applicants are placed in the same 'diversity' category… We will never know unless one of the Justices asks."

Oral argument this past Monday, per Justice Alito (though questioning UNC's lawyer, not Harvard's):

JUSTICE ALITO: "But what is the justification for lumping together students whose families came from China with someone—with students whose families came from Afghanistan? What do they have in common?"

MR. PARK: So I agree that that would be a strange rule. And that is not the rule that this Court has established. It would require —

JUSTICE ALITO: Well, then why do you have them check a box that I'm Asian? What do you learn from the mere checking of the box?