"What is special about law schools is that they produce lawyers, the secular priesthood. If an ethnic minority has relatively few of its own in the priesthood, that means they have systematically less than others arguably to effectively advocate their interests in the public square, and in the the high priest realm of the robed ones. That systematically reduces their ability to effectively contribute to the pluralistic mechanism advanced by Madison. On a personal note, every committee that I have been on that had lawyers and non-lawyers, has been totally dominated by the former. We simply are very good at dominating.
"Thus, I think law schools are qualitatively different from other modalities of higher educacation, or fields of endeavor (except perhaps police). Granted that is from a policy standpoint rather than a constitutional standpoint. To get past the constitution, since we are dealing with suspect classes, one must show a compelling state interest. Is this a compelling state interest? Possibly.
"Another thought. Suppose when California is majority Hispanic, there are still relatively few Hispanics in the U of C system. Suppose that means that public support for the system thus erodes, and the system is shut down, or truncated, when Hispanics start voting their numbers. Is offering up quotas in this instance a compelling state interest in order to keep the doors open, and avoid a degradation of the value added of human capital in the state. Stay tuned."