Reports from oral arguments in Fisher v. UT Austin are coming back, and [as expected](http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/10/will_the_roberts_court_end_affirmative_action.html), the future of affirmative action looks uncertain. It also looks like it’ll come down to Justice Anthony Kennedy. Lyle Denniston with the indispensable [SCOTUSblog](http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/10/argument-recap-will-grutter-be-reshaped/) offered some first reactions: > For all of the hype that preceded this argument, with fear and loathing among supporters of affirmative action, the entire seventy-nine minutes of exchanges were subdued, sometimes highly technical, and had more of the flavor of a seminar than a grand constitutional confrontation. U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., in his brief stint at the lectern, essayed some soaring rhetoric about the virtues of a multicultural society, but it seemed a bit too calculated.