Affirmative action vs. immigration

The immigration and affirmative action decisions in the just-concluded Supreme Court term attracted much attention independently. Few seem to have noticed, however, how tied they are to one another — how much racial preferences may affect feelings about immigration and vice versa.

President Obama himself missed the inherent irony when he celebrated the decision that upheld racial preferences, then decried the one that blocked him from giving legal protection to millions of illegal immigrants.