For the second time in 15 months, civil rights organizations have been working to avoid a Supreme Court review of a key affirmative action case. Legal observers say the groups fear a ruling adverse to their cause.

• The Boston School Board -- at the groups' urging -- has decided not to appeal a lower court ruling against an admission policy that boosted minority enrollment at the renowned Boston Latin School.

• In November 1997, civil rights leaders persuaded the Piscataway, N.J., school board to remove from the Supreme Court's docket a case involving the layoff of a white teacher that left a black teacher with equal seniority in place, so as to promote diversity.

• While the high court approved affirmative action programs in the 1970s, it has more recently shifted to the view that differential treatment on the basis of race violates the Constitution, observers note.

• The court last ruled on the issue in 1995, striking down by a 5 to 4 decision a federal program that gave minority firms preference in highway construction projects.

Ted Shaw, of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, commented that there is "too much at stake to risk pulling down affirmative action nationwide at the hands of a closely divided court."

Clint Bolick, of the Institute for Justice, accused the civil rights groups of "playing duck and run with the diversity issue, because they know they're on constitutional thin ice."

Source: Tony Mauro, "Civil Rights Groups Avoiding High Court," USA Today, February 8, 1999.