Progressives progress

A periodic reminder. Politics are temporary, but SCOTUS is virtually forever.

The coming term will probably include major decisions on affirmative action in higher education admissions, same-sex marriage and a challenge to the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those rulings could easily rival the last term’s as the most consequential in recent memory…

On Oct. 10, the court will hear Fisher v. University of Texas, No. 11-345, a major challenge to affirmative action in higher education. The case was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white woman who says she was denied admission to the University of Texas based on her race. The university selects part of its class by taking race into account, as one factor among many, in an effort to ensure educational diversity……

The court will probably also take on same-sex marriage. “I think it’s most likely that we will have that issue before the court toward the end of the current term,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said at the University of Colorado on Sept. 19……

The justices are also quite likely to take another look at the constitutionality of a signature legacy of the civil rights era, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 2009, the court signaled that it had reservations about the part of the law that requires the federal review of changes in election procedures in parts of the country with a history of discrimination, mostly the South.

It seems likely in the Roberts court, none of these decisions will go well. Most probably the court will reverse decades of progressive polices. And mark my words. If Romney wins, he'll get to nominate at least one, maybe two new justices and you can kiss Roe goodbye as well.

If that's not enough reason to put aside liberal purity for a few freaking weeks and vote in as many Democrats as possible, I don't know what is.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]