Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling May Be Bigger Than You Think

One of the more interesting, but less reported, aspects of the Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark affirmative action case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard was its criticism of universities’ racial categories in admissions policies. That critique opens a new way to challenge racial discrimination in court. Lawyers and litigants who care about racial equality should take full advantage of it. The high court’s perspective on racial categories arose out of what is known among lawyers as “the diversity rationale,” which comes from a 1978 opinion by Justice Lewis…

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North Carolina Court Corrects Flawed Ruling on Voter-ID Law Driven by Ideology, Not Law

In a decision that did not get the attention it deserved, the newly reconstituted North Carolina Supreme Court recently reinstated, as the court said, one of “least restrictive voter identification laws in the United States.” Liberal judges on that court—two of whom are no longer there after losing their 2022 re-election attempts—had previously thrown out the law, erroneously claiming that it was passed with discriminatory intent and that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the North Carolina Constitution. In Holmes v. Harper, on April 28, the new court withdrew…

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A Supreme Court Ruling That Could Tip the House

A decade’s worth of disappointment has conditioned Black Americans and Democrats to fear voting-rights rulings from the Supreme Court. In 2013, a 5–4 majority invalidated a core tenet of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Subsequent decisions have chipped away at the rest of the law, and in 2019, a majority of the justices declared that federal courts have no power to bar partisan gerrymandering. So this morning, when two conservatives joined the high court’s three liberals in reaffirming a central part of the Voting Rights Act, Democrats reacted as…

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Statement of MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting on the Supreme Court ruling on New York State Rifle & Pistol Asso­ci­ation v. Bruen

“Let’s be clear: This ruling will only fuel the epidemic of gun violence in this country. It is a shameful and outrageous decision which will lead to more deaths and more violence. The conservative-packed Supreme Court, in concert with Republicans in Congress, is ensuring our schools, our grocery stores, and our churches will continue to be targets of violence and not the sanctuaries and safe places they should be.  “It is hard to imagine a Supreme Court that is more out of touch with the people of this nation than…

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Statement of MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting on the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health

We won’t go back, but we will overturn the GOP. “Today, the Supreme Court decimated nearly 50 years worth of progress and for the first time in generations stripped us of our rights, freedoms, and control over our bodies. It is an outrageous and dangerous ruling which proves this court is nothing more than an arm of the Republican Party. Let’s be clear: Six justices did not overturn Roe; the entire Republican Party did. It makes the extremism of the modern-day Republican Party bare for all to see.  “We are…

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