The Supreme Court is now a political issue, and its rightwing justices asked for it.
The two most conservative members, Thomas and Alito, are embroiled in scandals involving undisclosed gifts from wealthy benefactors, in Thomas’s case millions of dollars. Alito is also under fire for flying MAGA flags at his properties. Chief justice Roberts’ resistance to holding justices to an ethics code isn’t helping.
All three Trump appointees who created the conservative supermajority were controversial, had contentious confirmation hearings, and were confirmed by partisan votes. The last one, Amy Comey Barrett, got on the court through tactics that Democrats regard as dirty pool by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
All six conservatives are Catholics, and all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, with the three non-Catholics dissenting. This decision marked the first time the court has ever rescinded a constitutional right, and smacked of the court imposing Catholic Church doctrine on the entire country. Polls show a large majority of the public supports legal abortion, and the court’s decision in that case has hurt GOP candidates.
In other unpopular decisions, the conservative justices have weakened voting rights, gun control efforts, separation of church and state, and government’s ability to regulate polluters. Resorting to dubious legal theories, and casting judicial restraint aside, they appear determined to overturn longstanding precedents supporting the modern liberal state. At times, they’ve injected fictitious case facts to justify their rulings.
Then came the presidential immunity decision that appears designed to help Trump in his ongoing criminal trials, and which liberals fear will give Trump (if he’s re-elected) and future presidents like him a free hand to commit crimes while in office. Two prominent legal scholars are predicting it will be overruled by a future Supreme Court (read story here).
Now a progressive advocacy group is planning a $10 million campaign aimed at reforming the court, Politico reported the next day (read story here). That, by itself, isn’t especially significant; but it comes against the backdrop of an existing waterfall of criticism and low public approval of the court, weakening Democrat hesitancy at pursuing court changes, and is probably the first of many such efforts to come.
Whether any of them will bear fruit remains to be seen. History suggests the Supreme Court, although more insulated from public opinion than Congress or the Executive, isn’t immune to it. My guess is more shocking rulings are coming. Despite the weight of public opinion against them, conservatives are on a crusade to remake not just government at all levels, but society itself in conformity with their image of a utopian society; and in this Supreme Court, they have an ally beyond voters’ reach.
What would that society look like? It will be white-dominated, Christianity will be a preferred if not imposed religion, and with lessened rights for minorities and nonconforming individuals. Whether this is what a majority of Americans won’t count because democracy is not a part of the conservative program.