The United States Supreme Court's recent affirmative action ruling Thursday, June 29, was condemned by many liberals and progressives, while, in the eyes of many conservatives, "the justices struck down a form of racial discrimination." The ruling, decided in a 6-3 vote led by Chief Justice John Roberts, banned Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) from using affirmative action, "ruling that race can no longer be a factor in college admissions." In a Washington Post op-ed published Sunday, columnist and MSNBC contributor, Jennifer Rubin insists, "as long...

The controversial decisions by the Supreme Court on LGBTQ rights and affirmative action show a “dangerous creep towards authoritarianism,” Democratic critics said Sunday while Republicans eyeing the White House stood behind the high court opinions. The court ruling allowing a Colorado-based Christian web designer to refuse services to LGBTQ people fits in with efforts by state legislatures to chip away at equality and equal rights, said Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttgieg, who is gay. The web designer claimed designing same-sex wedding sites would violate her religious beliefs.

Former United States Attorney General Eric Holder appeared on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation and clarified what affirmative action means from a legal standpoint in the wake of the Supreme Court's Friday ruling that gutted the decades-old practice. "I wanna ask you about affirmative action," CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan began. "In this decision that race cannot be used in college admissions, there was also written by Chief Justice — the Chief Justice's opinion — some detail here that seems a little confusing, frankly, because it says, 'Nothing in...

Amir Whitehead felt that ending affirmative action was not wrong. Other family members felt differently.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times The Supreme Court ruling is just the latest version of a question that the Whitehead family — and the nation — have been grappling with for years: How to deal with the legacy of slavery? For the Whiteheads, an African American family living in the city of Baltimore, race is discussed at the dinner table. In the car on the way to work and school and games. In the...

“I oppose affirmative action. But I also oppose legacy admissions, I oppose any kind of process or system that tries to degrade us from the principle of merit that our country was built upon. We’re founded upon excellence. That’s what the American dream is….That is a universal Maxim with which we should be striving to.” In this episode of ATL:NOW, I am joined by board member of Students for Fair Admissions Kenny Xu, plaintiff in a landmark federal case against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. This week, the...

Justices take up major Second Amendment dispute The Supreme Court will hear oral argument next fall in a major gun-rights case challenging the constitutionality of a federal ban on the possession of guns by individuals who are subject to domestic violence restraining orders. The Biden administration had asked the justices to weigh in after a federal appeals court struck down the ban earlier this year, and on Friday the justices agreed to do so. The announcement that the justices had granted review in United States v. Rahimi came on a...

Two Supreme Court justices attacked one another in a controversial ruling involving a website designer from Colorado who did not want to design same-sex wedding websites. On Friday in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Lorie Smith, who argued she should not have to serve certain customers due to her religious beliefs as a Christian. Because the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act prohibits businesses from openly discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, among other factors, Smith argued that the state law violated her free speech...

The diverse opinions issued in the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday striking down affirmative action in college admissions pretty well confirms Justice Clarence Thomas's assertion that black people are individuals, and as individuals, they have different experiences. All one has to do to see that is look at the dissenting opinion of his junior colleague, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is also black, and compare it to his own. In STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC., Plaintiff, v. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA the Court ruled 6-3 against affirmative action in college admissions,...

Black advocates are sounding the alarm on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decisions to overturn affirmative action and President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan, warning both will disproportionately affect Black families. Advocates say both student loan forgiveness and affirmative action, which the Supreme Court ruled against in two separate cases this week, are racial justice issues.