Without much scrutiny or fanfare, Edward Blum has led the attack against federal minority voter protection laws and the use of race in college admissions.
The Supreme Court issued a decision on June 29, 2023, that ends affirmative action in college admissions.
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The Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate affirmative action programs sent shock waves across the US and is expected to impact racial diversity throughout society.
Thurgood Marshall, left, had a very different view of the purpose of the Supreme Court than his successor, Clarence Thomas.
U.S. Supreme Court via Wikimedia Commons
Throughout Thomas’ tenure on the court, he has pushed the Supreme Court to replace Marshall’s vision with one more amenable to the powerful than the powerless.
The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2022.
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Unlike in most countries, US Supreme Court justices enjoy life tenure. Some legal scholars believe that centuries-old custom, meant to protect judicial independence, no longer serves the public.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the land.
Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images)
Scholars discuss the meaning of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s elevation to the highest court in the land.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, speaking during her confirmation hearing on March 22, 2022, would be the first Black woman to serve on the court.
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55 years after Thurgood Marshall testified during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearings show race and crime continue to drive questions about a Black jurist.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that effectively bans abortion in the state.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
From the oath-taking on the Bible during the presidential swearing-in ceremony to the ‘awe’ and ‘restraint’ of the early Christian world, the meaning of ‘religion’ has gone through a long journey.
George and Laura Elmore (left) voting after wining a landmark case ending white-only primaries in South Carolina.
University of South Carolina Civil Rights Center
South Carolina’s black community has a long history of fighting for democratic rights.
Thurgood Marshall outside the Supreme Court in Washington in 1958. Marshall, the head of the NAACP’s legal arm who argued part of the case, went on to become the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice.
AP
While the Brown vs. Board of Education case is often celebrated for ordering school desegregation, history shows many black people in the city where the case began opposed integrated schools.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg paying a courtesy call on Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., in June 1993, before her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court.
AP/Marcy Nighswander
Before she became a Supreme Court justice, the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work as an attorney in the 1970s changed the court’s approach to women’s rights and how we think about women – and men.
Black colleges and universities exemplify the American ideals of civil rights and equality.
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Historically black colleges account for only 3% of all colleges and universities. But, even today, 20% of black Americans earn their degrees at these schools.
The “engineer” of civil rights legal victories
law2.umkc.edu
The civil rights movement produced many different types of leaders. Thurgood Marshall, argued successfully before the Supreme Court that racial segregation laws violated the US Constitution. Diane Nash…