In a political season packed with racial controversies, from food stamps to birth certificates, the attack on one of the nation’s most significant racial opportunity programs has managed to fly below the radar. Until now.

The Supreme Court, which will hear arguments challenging the legality of affirmative action next Wednesday, is widely expected to strike down the policy as unconstitutional.

That would deliver a victory that Republicans have pursued for decades. So why aren’t they talking about it?

Mitt Romney, the GOP’s official, if embattled, leader, ruled the topic off-limits this year.

The Romney campaign refuses to address the issue at all, despite the looming court case. It recently rebuffed inquiries from the AP and Politico. (The Politico reporter said the campaign acknowledged his questions but refused to answer them.) Romney’s record on the issue is mixed: As governor, he quietly eliminated a Massachusetts affirmative action program through a 2003 executive order, but later he reversed himself under pressure.