IN his 1995 opinion in Miller v. Johnson, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy observed that “at the heart of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection lies the simple command that the Government must treat citizens as individuals, not as simple components of a racial, religious, sexual or national class.” William G. Bowen and Derek Bok place themselves squarely against that principle, as they try in their book, The Shape of the River, to justify admitting students to colleges and universities, both public and private, on the basis of their membership in a racial or national class.