WASHINGTON -- In a victory for diversity in higher education, a hamstrung Supreme Court narrowly upheld the affirmative action program at the University of Texas at Austin, effectively allowing the school to keep using race as one of many factors in its admissions process.

Justice Anthony Kennedy -- joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor -- ruled for a 4-3 majority that the university program does not violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

"The Courts affirmance of the Universitys admissions policy today does not necessarily mean the University may rely on that same policy without refinement," Kennedy wrote in a 20-page decision . "It is the Universitys ongoing obligation to engage in constant deliberation and continued reflection regarding its admissions policies."

That Kennedy was willing to offer his vote to uphold a college admissions program that partly relies on race to make admissions decisions -- after issuing prior opinions taking a skeptical view of affirmative action policies generally -- indicates that he may be willing to add educational diversity to his concern for dignity in other constitutional areas, such as LGBT rights.

"A university is in large part defined by those intangible qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness," he wrote. "Considerable deference is owed to a university in defining those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to its identity and educational mission."

The case, Fisher v. University of Texas, was one of the oldest cases left undecided on the court's current docket -- and one of a handful in which the late Justice Antonin Scalia could have been instrumental in the final outcome.