May 20, 2005

Suprising High-Court Rulings Shift Civil Rights Outlook

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice William Rehnquist will not be remembered as a friend of civil rights plaintiffs. In its early years, it narrowly interpreted key federal civil rights statutes, which led to Congress adopting the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to overrule those decisions. In the early 1990s, the court in a series of rulings ordered the end of successful school desegregation orders, even when it meant the resegregation of public schools.

Erwin Chemerinsky

Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law

Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).