What does the word maternal mean in the paragraph

Read the passage from the opinion of the court in brown v. board of education, written by justice warren. minors of the negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis. in each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. this segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the fourteenth amendment. in each of the cases other than the delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine announced by this court in plessy v. ferguson, 163 u. s. 537. under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. in the delaware case, the supreme court of delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the negro schools. which statement best describes the passage? a. warren explains the students’ position, then describes how it has been previously handled by the courts. b. warren provides reasons why segregation is permissible, then offers evidence to support the reasons. c. warren claims that the students don’t have grounds to sue, then gives reasons why not. d. warren gives a history of segregation in america, then explains how the students fit into that history.