The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a suit against Harvard University that could undo affirmative action in higher education and amid a yearslong track record of reversing First Circuit rulings that experts say highlights a stark partisan divide. Edwina Clarke, Appellate Litigation partner who clerked both at the Supreme Court and at the First Circuit, said the First Circuit's recent rough track record likely has more to do with the Supreme Court than with the lower appellate panel. "I think the First Circuit is doing its best to apply the precedent that exists at the time it makes these decisions, but in some of these cases, the Supreme Court is moving or stretching or reversing precedent in new ways," Clarke told Law360. "That is something the Supreme Court can do, and the First Circuit cannot do."