JIM LEHRER: This is the first Monday in October, always the first day of a new term of the U.S. Supreme Court. We look at the prospects and the possibilities of this term with NewsHour regular Stuart Taylor of Legal Times and The American Lawyer. Stuart, welcome. STUART TAYLOR, The American Lawyer: Nice to be here.

JIM LEHRER: In general, what should we expect from this term?

STUART TAYLOR: The biggest cases on the horizon so far involve race, gender, and the complex of issues under the rubrics racial, affirmative action, racial preferences, and sexual harassment.

In particular, the civil rights groups I think are awaiting this term with trepidation because when you count the votes in past cases, they have a hard time being optimistic about two big cases: one which the court has already agreed to here involving two schoolteachers in New Jersey in which a white teacher was laid off ahead of a black teacher, who was deemed equally qualified, on the ground that diversity in the business education department of a high school was the goal to be pursued. And the court’s going to review that. A lower court in that case held very broadly that any kind of racial preference could not be justified in employment if the only reason was diversity.

And there’s a huge case from California coming that may be even more important that the court will probably decide whether or not to hear sometime in the next month or two, and even if they say we’re not hearing it, even if all they say sert denied, it would be enormous.

JIM LEHRER: That’s a big deal.

STUART TAYLOR: It would be a very big deal.

A case challenging affirmative action.

JIM LEHRER: I’ll just go through those one at a time. The New Jersey case; give us the facts on that and where the matter rests as we speak.