The federal appeals courts are divided on whether the quest for diversity is a constitutionally adequate justification for racial preferences.

In sum, the court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the court's own judgment will not allow to be tested.

"An interrogation by one's captor, however effective an intelligence-gathering tool, hardly constitutes a constitutionally adequate fact-finding before a neutral decision-maker," wrote Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

The Court in Ginsberg concluded that the New York law created a constitutionally adequate adult zone simply because, on its face, it denied access only to minors.

In other words, the state court said, a "best interests of the child" standard was never constitutionally adequate.

However, the Court split 6-3 on whether the supplemental jury instructions on mitigating evidence was constitutionally adequate; the majority holding they were not.

Instead, she joined an opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist that the "likelihood of material prejudice" test was constitutionally adequate.

It is possible, Justice O'Connor continued, that constitutionally adequate hearings could be held "by an appropriately authorized and properly constituted military tribunal" that observed due process.