In addition to the Voting Rights Act case I just wrote about, the Supreme Court also granted review today in the New Haven firefighters case described by Stuart Taylor here. In short, the issue is whether New Haven can legally decide to throw out test results simply because they were politically incorrect. Suddenly, we have a very important Supreme Court term on civil rights issues.
In the New Haven case, by the way, the Obama administration WILL be on the hot seat. While it can plausibly claim that it has a duty to defend the constitutionality of federal laws when they are challenged (the situation in the Voting Rights Act case the Court granted today), it is under no such constraints when it comes to the discriminatory actions of the City of New Haven.