Hey y'all, you're listening to its been a minute from NPR.

I'm Brittany Loose.

Today, I want to dig into a face-off that I have not been able to stop thinking about.

Last week, a spectacle unfolded in front of reporters inside the Supreme Court of the

United States.

After handing down a decision that overturned what we call affirmative action, two justices

got up to speak their piece.

It was a battle of words between Justice Clarence Thomas, who opposed affirmative action,

and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was in favor.

And just to put a finer point on how unusual this was, Clarence Thomas has not once been

30 years spoken from the bench when issuing a concurring decision.

Both justices were deeply invested in this decision because they were both beneficiaries

of affirmative action.

Justice Thomas and Sotomayor were each admitted to Yale Law School under the same affirmative

action policy and attended only a few years apart in the 1970s.

So how is it that two people can have the same experience and land at drastically different

conclusions?

And what does their divide say about how Americans become polarized?

I called up Ron Elving, senior editor and correspondent on NPR's Washington Desk, and

Leah Wright-Rigger, professor of history at Johns Hopkins, to discuss what the loss

of affirmative action means and how political paths diverge.

Stay with us.

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