After a U.S. appeals court upheld the University of Michigan law school’s affirmative action policy earlier this week, Harvard administrators applauded the decision but said they worry what might happen if the Supreme Court takes on an appeal of the case.

The Harvard Civil Rights Project, a research and advocacy organization based at the Law School, had filed a friend-of-the-court brief on the University of Michigan case supporting universities’ right to consider race as a factor in admissions.

The project’s leaders praised the 5-4 decision by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for reaffirming a 1978 Supreme Court case that has since been considered legal precedent for permitting affirmative action.

“I think all the major universities and colleges in the country that have been employing affirmative action have been watching the law school case…and I hope this sends a strong signal to the universities that their policies are still valid and need to be continued,” said Angelo Ancheta, the project’s director of legal and advocacy programs and lead counsel on the brief.

University President Lawrence H. Summers also reacted favorably to the decision.

“I applaud the circuit court’s decision, which represents the endorsement of the kinds of admissions process that Harvard has used for years,” he said.

But Ancheta said he believes that if Harvard’s affirmative action policies were brought before the Supreme Court, the outcome would be uncertain.

“I certainly would want to think that they would [uphold the policies],” he said. “It would certainly be a close decision.”

The three white students who had been denied admission at Michigan and brought suit against the university have said they will likely appeal this week’s ruling to the Supreme Court.

If the nation’s highest court accepted the appeal and overturned the circuit court’s decision, universities across the country—including Harvard—would likely be forced to make drastic changes to their affirmative action policies.

Ancheta said he expects a decision from the high court by early fall on whether to hear the appeal, and he said the Civil Rights Project would file briefs in such a case.

He described himself as “cautiously optimistic” that the court would uphold the latest ruling but said he remains concerned by “the other decisions concerning race that have been coming out of the court.”

“I think it will be a close decision,” he said, adding that he expected the decision would come down to the swing votes of Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy.

If and when the case heads to the Supreme Court, Ancheta said he hopes the University would submit a brief of its own in addition to the project’s filing.

“Given President Summers’ recent statement and the history of the University in affirmative action, I would hope,” he said. “Frankly, I think Summers has not been coming out as strongly as he should, but I think this is a chance to demonstrate that they really have a commitment to affirmative action.”