The Supreme Court is taking pains to make sure its first Black female justice gets to take part in at least some of the looming arguments over affirmative action policies.
The justices announced recently that two momentous cases, one involving Harvard University’s admissions policy and another centered on the University of North Carolina, will now be heard separately.
Originally the cases were to be heard together. They both involve the same core issue and even have the same plaintiff, Students for Fair Admissions.
But that was before Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the court.
The judge, who sat on Harvard’s Board of Overseers, had promised during her confirmation hearing to recuse herself from taking part in the case involving that school.