If I was in control of admissions at Harvard I would proceed as I always have and forget the threat from the US government - unfortunately some state schools cannot afford to forgo federal monies like rich private institutions can.  Whites in this country have had an unfair advantage the entire existence of the country or colonies just because of the color of their skin (I'm white, so yes I can speak this way).  Sometimes a perceived injustice is required to make up for a much greater past injustice - this is what affirmative action is all about.  Until white people are kept as slaves and subjected to the Jim Crow south we do not have a proper perspective of this issue.  Civil rights in this country is still just into its third generation - people my age (and I'm under 70) still can remember whites only drinking fountains etc. - that kind of discrimination does not disappear overnight and it is right to balance the effects with affirmative action for at least 100 years.