The
justices have wrangled over how openly to talk about their differences.
And now, as a new session begins, the court is delving into a set of
racially charged cases in the explosive context of the criminal justice
system.
The
disputes evoke some of the hostile rhetoric of the presidential
campaign and real conflicts seen on urban streets: Slurs against
Mexican-Americans. Testimony that black defendants are more dangerous
than whites. A claim that police used racial epithets during an arrest
then fabricated evidence.
The cases
could especially test a Supreme Court that has been trying to smooth
over differences since the February death of Antonin Scalia and no
Senate action on US Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland, nominated by
President Barack Obama to succeed him.
The cases also arise as individual justices have been speaking more pointedly about the state of race in America.
In an interview soon after the July 7
killings of five Dallas police officers during a protest of police
shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg voiced distress.
"We never
realized what was the promise of the '60s," she said, responding to a
question about recent killings. "With all the equality legislation, the
Fair Housing Act [of 1968], the Voting Rights Act [of 1965], Title VII
[of the Civil Rights Act of 1964], we still live in a highly segregated
society. Black communities and white communities. Black schools and
white schools."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first and only Hispanic justice, has increasingly referred to racial divisions.
"[I]t
is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this
type of [police] scrutiny," she wrote as she dissented in a June
police-stop case. "For generations, black and brown parents have given
their children 'the talk' -- instructing them never to run down the
street; always keep your hands where they can be seen ... all out of
fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them."
Supreme Court starts new term with more questions than answers
The
justices have been riven more broadly on race, in cases covering school
integration plans, municipal hiring, voting rights and college
affirmative action.
In June, when
Justice Anthony Kennedy voted for the first time to approve a university
admissions program favoring minorities, he voiced new concerns about
racial isolation and stereotyping.
Chief
Justice John Roberts dissented then and has been firmly on the other
side of the issue. He has expressed skepticism for remedies intended to
promote diversity or counter historic discrimination. In 2013, he won a
narrow majority to limit the reach of the Voting Rights Act in the
Shelby County, Alabama, dispute. Race has divided the Roberts court like nearly no other issue.
The
justices have wrangled over how openly to talk about their differences.
And now, as a new session begins, the court is delving into a set of
racially charged cases in the explosive context of the criminal justice
system.
The
disputes evoke some of the hostile rhetoric of the presidential
campaign and real conflicts seen on urban streets: Slurs against
Mexican-Americans. Testimony that black defendants are more dangerous
than whites. A claim that police used racial epithets during an arrest
then fabricated evidence.
The cases
could especially test a Supreme Court that has been trying to smooth
over differences since the February death of Antonin Scalia and no
Senate action on US Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland, nominated by
President Barack Obama to succeed him.
The cases also arise as individual justices have been speaking more pointedly about the state of race in America.
In an interview soon after the July 7
killings of five Dallas police officers during a protest of police
shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg voiced distress.
"We never
realized what was the promise of the '60s," she said, responding to a
question about recent killings. "With all the equality legislation, the
Fair Housing Act [of 1968], the Voting Rights Act [of 1965], Title VII
[of the Civil Rights Act of 1964], we still live in a highly segregated
society. Black communities and white communities. Black schools and
white schools."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first and only Hispanic justice, has increasingly referred to racial divisions.
"[I]t
is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this
type of [police] scrutiny," she wrote as she dissented in a June
police-stop case. "For generations, black and brown parents have given
their children 'the talk' -- instructing them never to run down the
street; always keep your hands where they can be seen ... all out of
fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them."
Supreme Court starts new term with more questions than answers
The
justices have been riven more broadly on race, in cases covering school
integration plans, municipal hiring, voting rights and college
affirmative action.
In June, when
Justice Anthony Kennedy voted for the first time to approve a university
admissions program favoring minorities, he voiced new concerns about
racial isolation and stereotyping.
Chief
Justice John Roberts dissented then and has been firmly on the other
side of the issue. He has expressed skepticism for remedies intended to
promote diversity or counter historic discrimination. In 2013, he won a
narrow majority to limit the reach of the Voting Rights Act in the
Shelby County, Alabama, dispute.
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