"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.”

This admonition from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one that African Americans should take to heart amid the pending debate over President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. With the legal gains of the civil rights movement under relentless attack by this administration, the stakes of this nomination could not be higher for our community. The Court that emerges out of this fight will determine the trajectory of civil rights and racial justice for generations to come. This is a moment to be vocal and vigilant about protecting the gains we’ve made.

Here’s a look at what’s on the line:

Voting Rights

A host of state legislatures around the country are working to undermine fair access to the ballot, with a particular eye toward disenfranchising African Americans and other traditionally-marginalized communities. Already the Supreme Court has rendered several disappointing decisions that will make it easier for states to throw up roadblocks to voting for African Americans. Just this past term, the Court gave the green light to a voter purge program in Ohio that made it easier to remove voters from the rolls. With the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court would be poised to become even more hostile to voting rights than it already is, as his judicial record suggests that he will be sympathetic to state efforts to chip away at this most fundamental of rights. During his time on the bench, he wrote the opinion for the court in a case that allowed South Carolina to put a photo ID requirement in place.

Affirmative Action

As I write, efforts to promote racial diversity in our nation’s colleges and universities are being challenged in the courts by anti-affirmative action zealots. And there will almost surely be more attacks, financed by special interest groups on the far right, in the years to come. At the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, we are engaged in two dangerous challenges to affirmative action involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina. With Justice Anthony Kennedy as the swing vote, the Supreme Court made clear that race could be one among a number of factors that schools could consider in the context of a holistic admissions policy But with Judge Kavanaugh, who once submitted an amicus brief for an explicitly anti-affirmative action organization, that is likely to change.

Criminal Justice

The Supreme Court’s docket typically includes a number of criminal justice cases. From illegal searches and seizures to law enforcement immunity to capital punishment, the Court plays a significant role in regulating the administration of justice in this country. Judge Kavanaugh’s record and views on criminal procedure, particularly his reluctance to hold law enforcement accountable and his tendency to rule against criminal defendants, raise serious concerns for our community, given the racial discrimination that continues to infect virtually every stage of the justice system today;.

Reproductive Rights

While women of color are sometimes disconnected from mainstream movements around reproductive rights, the reality is that access to abortion and to reproductive health services generally matters a great deal for low-income African American women and women of color. A recent Pew study indicates that African Americans actually support abortion at even higher rates than their white counterparts. Specifically, 62 percent of black adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 58 percent of whites. Here, Judge Kavanaugh’s record raises real questions. His nomination comes at a time when President Trump vowed only to nominate people who would overturn Roe v. Wade. And, in a highly controversial decision this year involving a 17-year-old immigrant girl seeking an abortion, Judge Kavanaugh issued a ruling that had the impact of obstructing and denying her the ability to terminate her pregnancy, until a full panel of judges intervened.

On a range of other issues, from housing discrimination to women’s reproductive rights to consumer and workers’ rights, these critical inflection points at the Supreme Court have a tangible impact on our day-to-day lives. We owe it to those who fought to make progress possible to defend that progress. How do we do that? We call our Senators to make sure they know we’re invested in this fight, and to insist that they examine Judge Kavanaugh’s record in its entirety and scrutinize his views on the constitutional and civil rights issues important to our community. We mobilize our organizations to speak out in this debate and galvanize their members. Most importantly, we vote in November because this Supreme Court nomination is a powerful reminder that elections have consequences. It is critical that we activate our friends and family members to vote, mindful of everything that is at stake.

Kristen Clarke is President and Executive Director of the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The Lawyers’ Committee is active in the Supreme Court and plays a central role in evaluating Supreme Court nominees during each and every vacancy. Follow her @KristenClarkeJD