According to one UCLA law professor, it does. Richard Sander, writing in the Stanford Law Review, recently suggested that affirmative action causes black students to enroll in law schools beyond their abilities. As a result, he says, they receive poor grades and pass the bar at lower rates. The implication is that without affirmative action, black students would attend more appropriate schools, fare better, and pass the bar more consistently. Hence, we'd have more black lawyers.

Of course, not everyone agrees with him. Critics say his data are correct but his conclusions lack merit.

Seems to me, though, that this argument isn't entirely new. That is, opponents of affirmative action have always suggested that some minority students would fare better at less-competitive colleges and be more likely to graduate, and that affirmative action therefore doesn't do them any favors.

The debate rages on.