When it comes to Supreme Court cases, the justices’ questions during oral arguments are often pointed and meant to advance their own views. Conservative justices tend to ask friendly questions of lawyers on the conservative side and scrutinize the logical weaknesses of the liberal side, while liberal justices do the opposite. This pattern mostly held during the five hours of oral arguments on two affirmative action cases in October. However, about three hours into the session, Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked a less typical question that raised an inconvenient issue for his fellow conservatives. The question involved slavery and whether a benefit to descendants of slaves would be considered race-based. Cameron Norris, a lawyer arguing for the end of race-based affirmative action, seemed caught off guard and disagreed with Kavanaugh’s assertion. Kavanaugh then pointed out that Norris had already acknowledged the post-Civil War benefits that…
2023-05-01 05:49:34
Original from www.nytimes.com