ON WEDNESDAY, President Bush announced that his administration would file briefs in opposition to the University of Michigan affirmative action policies now before the Supreme Court. Bush apparently would be taking, as one news account put it, a “hard-line” position.

But then, late Thursday night, Solicitor General Theodore Olson filed the briefs. To be sure, they ask the court to declare the Michigan policies unconstitutional. But they do so in a way that hardly can be called “hard-line.” In fact, by avoiding key issues in the litigation, the briefs would permit the illegal and immoral business at the core of the Michigan policies–using race (and ethnicity) to favor and disfavor applicants.