1.   Ashcroft said under oath that he had never used sexual preference as an issue in hiring decisions.

2.   Graglia said recently that Hispanics and blacks could not compete academically with whites and that admission preferences were being used because minorities underperform on standardized tests.

3.   He stated that racial preferences could be used as an exception for achieving classroom diversity, although no other justice joined this part of his opinion.

4.   In that brief, Walter Dellinger, the acting solicitor general, said that the court should uphold the concept of using preferences to achieve a diverse work force.

5.   In prior rulings, the Savannah jurist told UGA that if it continued using racial preferences to ensure a diverse student body, the policy would not withstand scrutiny.

6.   Law school deans from Stanford University and the universities of Minnesota, Michigan and North Carolina testified that they use similar preferences for minority applicants.

7.   One Florida bans colleges from using racial preferences in admissions.

8.   That will be toughest at the graduate and professional schools, where racial preferences are used to craft diverse classes.

9.   The rulings held that colleges can use racial preferences in some circumstances to achieve diversity in the classroom.