Race Based

The public high school where Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Leonard Bernstein all studied was ordered Thursday to dismantle its race-based admissions policy. The ruling by a federal appeals court here held that Boston Latin School, the country's oldest public school, could no longer maintain admission standards that promote minority attendance.

Los Angeles Police Department officials, alarmed by the continued rise in the homicide rate this year, sought Tuesday to debunk the notion that racial animosity has been at the heart of many of the killings. A detailed analysis of each of the homicides this year leaves little doubt that race is not the prime factor and that "the most likely suspect is one that looks just like their victim," Deputy Chief Charlie Beck said in a presentation to the department's civilian Police Commission.

A lawsuit filed for a white first-grader threatens school desegregation policies in Charlotte, N.C., where a landmark ruling 30 years ago cleared the way for busing to integrate public schools nationwide. The federal trial, set to open here today, is the latest attack on racial quotas and busing plans drawn up since the late 1960s by local school boards to end segregation.

On Thursday night, following a protracted battle with negative press, the continued indifference of participating contestants and a presumed bout of soul-searching, CBS brought the grand race experiment on this season's "Survivor" to an abrupt, unsatisfying end. It was one week old (three weeks in TV time). Not halfway into the season's third episode, the show's race-based tribes were dissolved, with no preceding fanfare, and no explanation.

Just in time for the season of political redistricting, the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave states more leeway in creating electoral districts that favor blacks, Latinos and other minorities. The 5-4 ruling steps back from a series of recent rulings that condemned "racial gerrymandering" in the South. While the Constitution usually bars the government from making decisions based on race, states can make decisions for partisan political reasons, the justices said Wednesday.

The Supreme Court remained silent Monday on race-conscious admissions policies in higher education, refusing to hear Texas' challenge to a ruling that its law school affirmative action program discriminated against whites. Without comment, the decision not to take the case showed the justices are not ready to break years of silence on preferential admissions in public colleges.

Proposed restrictions on minority-only scholarships were bitterly denounced Wednesday by university leaders, who said the policy would threaten to prevent minority students from getting a college education. The educators said that while such scholarships were relatively rare, they were of crucial help in attracting minority students to programs where they would otherwise have little representation. Last week, the Education Department's new civil rights division director, Michael L.

In her article on women's battle to integrate the worlds of work, home and family, Mimi Avins unfortunately trots out the same tired cliches and assumptions that have hamstrung mainstream feminism since its inception ("Mystique of the Feminine Veils a Difficult Choice," Dec. 22).

Education Secretary Lamar Alexander said Wednesday that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to decide whether federally supported colleges and universities may designate scholarships for minority-member students. The Education Department is completing a nearly yearlong review of the issue, and Alexander said that he would release a formal policy decision on race-specific financial aid within the next two weeks.