Supreme Court likely to ban affirmative action in college admissions, legal experts say | Fox News
In perhaps the most telling moments of the arguments, Harvard attorney Seth Waxman got into testy exchanges with Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts in the span of a couple of minutes.
Alito pressed Waxman on why it is that Asian American students regularly receive lower personal scores on their applications than other races. Waxman talked around the justice's questions, causing Alito to get frustrated with the lawyer.
"I still haven't heard any explanation for the disparity between the personal scores that are given to Asians," Alito said.
Waxman then got into a tense back-and-forth with Roberts. The justice asked why Waxman was downplaying race as a factor in admissions decisions, when according to Roberts it must have some impact, or else it would not be included.
Waxman admitted race was decisive "for some highly qualified applicants," just like "being… an oboe player in a year in which the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra needs an oboe player."
"We did not fight a civil war about oboe players," Roberts shot back. "We did fight a civil war to eliminate racial discrimination."