… Sometimes ? as in its broad and blessedly civilized ruling Thursday protecting gay Americans from the invasions of a censorious state ? the Supreme Court upholds high principle. And sometimes the best it can do is give us the muddle of real life.

"A cynic," protested The Wall Street Journal, "might conclude that yesterday's decisions mean universities can still racially discriminate, as long as they're not too obvious about it." [p6: and, of course, any bunch of rich guys who call the working poor "lucky duckies" most eminantly qualifies for the title of cynic] Yes, just so. The editorial might have added that this is pretty much what the first President Bush did when he appointed a black jurist of questionable distinction to the Supreme Court, insisting all the while that it had nothing to do with race.