Pure Politics

The present Supreme Court has been noticeably unreceptive to legal claims asserted by racial minorities. Although it is always possible to articulate nonracial motives for the Court\u27s civil rights decisions, the popular perception is that a politically conservative majority wishing to cut back on the protection minority interests receive at majority expense now dominates the Supreme Court. In reviewing the work of the Court during its 1988 Term, The United States Law Week reported that [a] series of civil rights decisions by a conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court making it easier to challenge affirmative action programs and more difficult to establish claims of employment discrimination highlighted the 1988-89 term\u27s labor and employment cases. U.S. Law Week went on to cite seven decisions handed down that Term that adversely affected minority interests