Under the race-based admissions at the University of Michigan, applicants are given four points for being a legacy and twenty points for being black.

In the aftermath of recent Federal court rulings that sharply curtailed affirmative action programs, the Attorney General of Georgia has asked the state university system to rescind all its race-based admissions and financial aid policies.

The last time the regents discussed race-based admissions, on May 18, about 200 student demonstrators showed up to protest any change in the current policy, temporarily disrupting the meeting.

Sharpening the debate over race-based admissions to state universities, Texas legislators have approved a bill requiring those institutions to make scholarship athletes meet the same minimum grade standards as other students.

Mr. Olson won a 1994 ruling that forced the University of Texas to end race-based admissions, a case that pitted him against Mr. Tribe, who represented the state in an unsuccessful appeal.

If the Supreme Court knocks down race-based admissions using grades as the reason, then grades should be the only factor considered in admissions.

Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida is currently embroiled in a fight over an executive order that outlaws race-based admissions at the state universities - while guaranteeing admissions to the top 20 percent of high school classes.

The Texas attorney general has asked the high court to review the Hopwood decision, a 1996 ruling that led to a ban on race-based admissions at public universities in Texas.

Law Professor Herman Schwartz called O'Connor "the Court's leader in its assault on racially oriented affirmative action," although she joined with the Court in upholding the constitutionality of race-based admissions to universities.

The first freshman class selected to Florida's state college system since Gov. Jeb Bush put an end to race-based admissions has shown, instead of a decrease in minority enrollment, an increase of 12 percent.