John Yoo and James Phillips write at National Review Online that the U.S. Supreme Court might change course on racial preferences.

America has a race problem. It has always had a race problem. Slavery, as many have observed, is America’s original sin. The challenge that will confront the new Roberts Court is how far it will allow government to make amends for that sin, while preventing a new elite of social engineers from jury-rigging the right racial balances — all in the name of a racial diversity that has suddenly became an end of a just society, rather than merely a means. As with its passages on religion, the Second Amendment, or the role of the courts, the Constitution’s command is relatively clear. It is the Court’s past failures to live up to principle that has kept the issue in doubt, but the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh may finally put it to rest.

More than 150 years after the end of slavery, 60 years after the end of public-school segregation, and two years after America’s first black president left the Oval Office, accusations of racism fill our airwaves and screens. Democrats fresh off a solid midterm victory in Congress still claim that the suppression of minority voting cost them governorships and Senate seats, despite voter turnout that reached heights not seen since 1914.  …

… The Roberts Court can finally put an end to the tangled relationship between our government and race. As Chief Justice Roberts observed in a 2007 case limiting racial-diversity plans in elementary and secondary schools: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation can make all the difference.