Affirmative action as we know it is probably doomed. When you ask top Obama administration officials and people in the federal court system about the issue, you often hear a version of that prediction. Five of the Supreme Court’s nine justices have never voted in favor of a race-based affirmative action program. Already, the court has ruled that such programs have the burden of first showing “that available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice.” The issue appears to be following a familiar path in Chief Justice John Roberts’s court. On divisive social issu...