SCOTUS 2019 Term Preview

From its inception, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) has served on the front lines of civil rights litigation efforts. Only the government has litigated more civil rights cases before the Supreme Court. Our goal is to keep our supporters abreast of key developments in civil rights jurisprudence by providing substantive, yet concise, overviews of the noteworthy cases before the Court. Of the many cases the Court will hear this term, we have highlighted five that present issues related to civil rights. These cases are Ramos v. Louisiana; Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia & Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda; Mathena v. Malvo; Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California et al.; and Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American-Owned Media.

In each case snapshot, we provide the question presented, the background of the case, the key legal issues, the case’s importance to civil rights, and a description of LDF’s amicus brief, if applicable. We hope this summary will be easy to digest and underscore the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court (and other courts) to our lives and the future of our democracy.