US Supreme Court to Hear Affirmative Action Cases

Several hundred demonstrators, many of them college or high school students, gathered on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court early this morning to proclaim support for using skin color as a factor in admissions in order to maintain racially diverse public schools.

The court is hearing arguments today in two high-stakes school desegregation cases-- the first test on the issue Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. since they were appointed to the court last term. Both justices in the past have been skeptical about the use of racial classifications.

The Washington Post has more.