As Judge Amy Coney Barrett makes the rounds on Capitol Hill this week in preparation for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month, some legal scholars are concerned about what her appointment to the high court might mean for the future of civil rights and affirmative action.
“I am very concerned about this nomination for those of us who care about opportunity, issues of inclusion,” said Theodore M. Shaw, professor of law and director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the former Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “I don’t think this portends well for where the Court might go.”
One such point of concern is for race-conscious admissions programs at public colleges and universities, said Tiffany R. Wright, co-director of the Howard University School of Law Human and Civil Rights Clinic.
“There is a case right now in the 1st Circuit that’s being argued about race-conscious admissions at Harvard,” Wright said. “And if Judge Barrett is confirmed, she could be one of the potentially five or six votes to end or significantly decrease the use of race-conscious admissions programs for college admissions.”
Yale Law School professor Justin Driver said it was plausible that Barrett’s vote on affirmative action would not be decisive, given that there are already five conservative-leaning judges on the court.
“My prediction would be that it would be a 6 to 3 vote to eliminate affirmative action,” Driver said.
That worries civil rights advocates who argue that the nation cannot abandon its commitment to affirmative action, particularly as the country grapples with ongoing racial inequities.
