Supreme Court: A Chorus for Civil Rights

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Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court was resoundingly rejected last year in large part because the Senate feared Bork would push the Justices into overturning landmark decisions on civil rights. All the more reason for the uproar last April, when Justice Anthony Kennedy, who filled the vacant seat, joined a 5-to-4 court majority inviting reargument of a 1976 decision that allowed citizens to sue private institutions for damages resulting from racial discrimination.

By last week's deadline for filing briefs, an agglomeration of political, legal and scholarly petitioners had urged the court to leave the 1976 ruling in force. One brief came from 112 civil rights, religious and civic organizations. They were seconded by the attorneys general of 47 states. A congressional brief, bearing the names of 66 Senators (including 19 Republicans) and 118 House members (including five Republicans), also opposed reconsideration because of an "institutional interest in the stability of statutory precedents." One of the few institutions remaining silent: the Justice Department.