The Supreme Court risks inflaming the prejudices that America sought to banish

First abortion, now affirmative action. The highest court in the US, with a Trump-imposed conservative majority, is rowing back on legislation that has been established for decades. Now, writes Andrew Feinberg, these justices risk repercussions that go beyond the law

The effect of the current court’s jurisprudence has been to roll back much of what was done to expand rights in the 1970s (AP)

Just over a year after the Supreme Court voted six to three to overturn half a century of federally guaranteed reproductive freedom for American women, those same six Republican-appointed justices have given the conservative legal movement another watershed victory.

This time, the matter in which the court’s conservative supermajority flexed its judicial muscle was one of race-based preferences in college admissions.

For decades, US courts have allowed admissions officers at institutions of higher education to give at least some consideration to the race of prospective students when assembling the class of those who will be permitted to matriculate at the beginning of each academic year.