The Supreme Court is and has always been a racist institution. With a couple of notable exceptions, the justices have been white men who upheld apartheid, discrimination, racist police brutality and murders, and the racist immiseration by capitalism. Few institutions are so ugly.

However, there is hope in Supreme Court jurisprudence (taught to me by @RobsonConLaw) that is worth sharing on Juneteenth, like the historic and powerful dissent in the Schuette case by Justice Sotomayor. I'm going to tweet an excerpt but read it all: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-682_8759.pdf

[citations removed] "Race matters. Race matters in part because of the long history of racial minorities’ being denied access to the political process. And although we have made great strides, 'voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that.' Race also matters because of

persistent racial inequality in society—inequality that cannot be ignored and that has produced stark socioeconomic disparities. And race matters for reasons that really are only skin deep, that cannot be discussed any other way, and that cannot be wished away. Race matters to a

young man's view of society when he spends his teenage years watching others tense up as he passes, no matter the neighborhood where he grew up. Race matters to a young woman’s sense of self when she states her hometown, and then is pressed, “No, where are you really from?”,

regardless of how many generations her family has been in the country. Race matters to a young person addressed by a stranger in a foreign language, which he does not understand because only English was spoken at home. Race matters because of the slights, the snickers, the silent

judgments that reinforce that most crippling of thoughts: “I do not belong here.” In my colleagues’ view, examining the racial impact of legislation only perpetuates racial discrimination. This refusal to accept the stark reality that race matters is regrettable. The way to stop

discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination. As members of the judiciary tasked with intervening to carry out the

guarantee of equal protection, we ought not sit
back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial
inequality that exists in our society. It is this view that
works harm, by perpetuating the facile notion that what
makes race matter is acknowledging the simple truth that

race does matter."