Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court announced on Jan. 24 that it would review appellate court decisions upholding the use of race in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, there has been a bevy of pronouncements on what the court’s opinion would mean. One side bemoaned what they believed would be the death of affirmative action, while the other cheered its demise.

The one thing nearly all these commentators have in common is the assumption that the justices will reverse a string of opinions going back nearly 50 years and declare the use of race in college admissions unconstitutional. This sentiment received a huge boost after the court upheld a Mississippi law restricting abortions and Justice Samuel Alito, in an angry and arrogant opinion, reversed Roe v. Wade, another precedent of long standing.