6669: Taking Race To The Supreme Court.

From USA TODAY…

The Supreme Court tackles race

By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In his first major speech as attorney general, Eric Holder tried to spur a conversation on race by bluntly describing America as “essentially a nation of cowards” and saying people “simply do not talk enough with each other about race.”

Two months later, the issue of race is squarely before the Supreme Court, which begins hearing this week four cases that could dramatically alter the landscape of civil rights law. The cases also could provide a revealing look at how the administration of the nation’s first African-American president will address racial matters before the Supreme Court, led by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.

The disputes come to the high court just months after the election of Barack Obama as president and the confirmation of Holder as the nation’s first black attorney general. They also arise at a time when a majority of the nine justices have signaled they want to end government policies that favor racial minorities to remedy past bias or enhance diversity.

The cases encompass fundamental issues — voting rights, employment, housing and education — and will test the court’s stance on civil rights more comprehensively than at any time in the past decade. Their outcomes will determine, for example, the Justice Department’s authority to screen state election policies that might hurt minority candidates.

The justices also will examine the validity of tests that don’t seem to discriminate against minorities, including written exams or strength requirements, but that end up disproportionately disqualifying minorities from jobs or promotions.

During the presidential campaign, Obama did not make race a central theme but was willing to confront the divisive topic, as he did in a March 2008 speech in Philadelphia after racially incendiary comments from his former pastor threatened to derail the campaign.

The new president is partly a reflection of the legacy of voting rights laws that help to ensure participation by minorities in the electoral process. And yet, his victory is fueling arguments before the Supreme Court that some voting rights protections aren’t necessary anymore.

His “historic election … stands as a remarkable testament to the tremendous progress this country has made in terms of racial equality and voting,” says the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation.

The foundation has signed one of six “friend of the court” briefs siding with a Texas utility district’s challenge to Congress’ 2006 renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The landmark law sought to end discrimination at the polls, in part by giving the U.S. Justice Department the power to oversee election laws in parts of the country with a history of bias.

Civil rights advocates, among the groups signing 18 such briefs on the other side, are battling any potential decrease in enforcement of federal civil rights laws, from those that protect voting rights to those that shield minorities from even indirect discrimination in the workplace.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” says John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, arguing the 2008 election that vaulted Obama to the presidency also included situations in which some black voters faced intimidation at the polls.

Read the full story here.