Alito and Thomas Warn Against Race-Based Police Rules in SCOTUS Dissent

Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear U.S. v. Carter, arguing that forcing police to apply race-based standards would undermine a color-blind Constitution and amount to treating people differently by race. The dissent cites a lower court ruling in a case involving a Black defendant whose encounter with police led to a later seizure of a pistol, warning that requiring officers to assess race in real time could expand racially biased policing rather than curb it.