Joined by first Black woman on Supreme Court, justices to tackle affirmative action, voting rights
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court opens a historic term Monday by welcoming its first Black woman to the bench as it faces challenges to past liberal rulings on race, affirmative action and voting rights.
At issue this year is a long-standing dispute over the role of race in the law.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joins a court whose conservative majority has put itself on a collision course with progressives and civil rights advocates who insist that equal opportunity and fair representation requires considering race.
"Race continues to matter," said Deborah Archer, an NYU law professor and president of the ACLU. As a nation, "we continue to struggle with racial equality."
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has long maintained that the Constitution is "color blind" and does not permit using race to decide who is admitted to a university or how to shape an election district, even if the goal is to correct past injustices or improve diversity.
