Washington – Nearly seven months have passed since the Supreme Court heard arguments about public school integration plans. A decision, it seems, is finally at hand.
Whether school districts can use race as a factor in assigning students to schools is the biggest unresolved issue among the eight remaining cases.
But as the court enters the expected final week of its term, several other important topics loom. They include disputes over limits on speech, separation of church and state and executing the mentally ill. The final days are being watched more closely than usual because this is the first full term for Chief Justice John Roberts.
Decisions on abortion, discrimination and the rights of defendants have put the court on a more conservative footing with the addition of President Bush’s two appointees, Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
“It will tell us so much more about the Roberts court when we see decisions on hot-button issues like race and religion,” said Thomas Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who argues before the court.
It is typical to leave some of the hardest cases to the end, when opinions have been the subject of lengthy negotiations often accompanied by multiple dissents and concurrences.
“The court may be the least dangerous branch, but it doesn’t want to be the least interesting,” said Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor.
