Joe Biden at the White House on Friday. Associated Press/LaPresse Evan Vucci (APN)
“This is not a normal court.” That’s what US President Joe Biden said when asked if the Supreme Court was corrupt. He didn’t go that far, but last week he was quick to show his outrage at three Supreme Court conservative supermajority rulings on affirmative action, LGBTQ+ discrimination and student loan relief. Those rulings continued the conservative revolution that the court launched last year with rulings on abortion, firearms and the fight against climate change. Additionally, a defiant Biden is looking for a way to take on the court and sidestep his decisions with alternative measures, but it’s proving not easy.
On Thursday, after the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action on college admissions, Biden slammed the decision and charged the Department of Education with new admissions guidelines to achieve more inclusive and diverse campus locations. “We cannot allow this decision to be the last word,” he said. He appeared in court again on Friday after his plan to eliminate or reduce federal student loan debt for millions of Americans was effectively thwarted. “With today’s decision, one way is blocked, now we’re going a different way. I will never stop fighting for you,” said Biden, who announced he would use another legal avenue for student debt relief.
In his speech, Biden repeatedly attacked Republicans, pointing out that Republican congressmen were happy about hundreds of thousands of dollars in relief during the pandemic (loans that were forgiven), but didn’t advocate giving the students from whom they Got money offering reliefs had “taken away the hope”. “The hypocrisy is breathtaking,” he continued. “These Republican officials just couldn’t face the thought of bringing relief to America’s working and middle classes.”
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The conservative revolution in the Supreme Court will shape American politics for years to come. Democrats hope the backlash to the rulings will help mobilize young, Hispanic and black voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, just as the Supreme Court’s decision to scrap federal abortion rights mobilized voters in the 2022 midterm election.
Up until this week, the Supreme Court seemed more ready for a consensus. Conservative and liberal judges had joined forces in several high-profile cases to dismiss the most extreme lawsuits brought by Republicans and conservative groups in court. Together, they endorsed the Biden administration’s immigrant deportation policy, rejected an Alabama election map that repressed black voters, and even turned a deaf ear to an even more aggressive Trump election theory, the doctrine of the independent state legislature, which laid the foundations threatened to undermine democracy by removing the control of state courts over the electoral rules and decisions of their parliaments. Conservatives and liberals also retained the system favoring Native American families in foster and adoption procedures for Native American children.
In addition, there was unanimity on other important decisions. The court unanimously dismissed a lawsuit alleging that social media platforms should be held liable for facilitating a deadly attack on a Turkish nightclub and sided with a religious postman who, because of his beliefs, refused to deliver packages on Sundays.
But this vision of the court was a mirage. His annual term ended in a sharp right-wing swing, with the Conservative and Liberal judges exchanging harsh words that sometimes came across as human, as seen in the attacks between the two black judges on the bench, Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In addition to rulings on affirmative action and student debt relief, the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Lorie Smith, a graphic artist who wanted to design wedding websites but refused to work with same-sex couples. According to Ben Olinsky, vice president of the Center for American Progress, the ruling gives companies a “license to discriminate.”
The case also reflects the kind of culture wars that the conservative majority of the court is willing to engage in. No same-sex couple asked the designer for a website for their wedding. She didn’t even create websites for weddings. It was all a tailor-made case promoted by an ultra-conservative group to win the battle against the LGBTQ+ community.
The last three sentences have reminded the public that the court’s conservative majority, achieved thanks to Donald Trump’s three appointments during his tenure, remains in place. Not since Richard Nixon has a president appointed so many Supreme Court justices. Although Republicans have won only one presidential election since 1992 (the 2004 election that George W. Bush won), the Supreme Court has six conservative justices and only three liberals.
“After decades of a special-interest-funded attempt to reshape the federal justice system, the fanatical MAGA right has taken over the Supreme Court and imposed dangerous, regressive policies it could never achieve at the ballot box,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , while Trump and other Republicans celebrated each controversial sentence.
The court is relatively young (the oldest conservative judges are Clarence Thomas, 75, and Samuel Alito, 73) and the seats are for life. Some Democratic attorneys have suggested expanding the court or limiting terms, but Biden has neither a majority to agree to such measures nor a desire to do so. He believes this would only lead to further politicization of the justice system.
Progressive women judges have raised their voices in private voting. “Today, in every respect, the court is exceeding its proper and limited role,” Elena Kagan wrote of the college loan decision. The decision “undoes decades of precedent and transcendental advances,” Sonia Sotomayor said of affirmative action. “It’s wrong, profoundly wrong,” argued the three progressive judges of the web designer’s verdict.
“I think the court misread the Constitution,” Biden said Friday in a speech that surprised experts including Noah Rosenblum, an associate professor at the NYU School of Law. “This is a very direct confrontation with the court – much more so than after Dobbs [the case that struck down the federal right to abortion]. wild stuff”, Rosenblum said in a message on Twitter.
Scandal surrounding luxury vacations given to judges
The Supreme Court has made headlines not only for its controversial rulings, but also for several scandals that have questioned the ethics of some judges. Newspaper revelations have revealed that two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, have received secret invitations and lavish gifts from major Republican donors.
According to ProPublica, Thomas and his wife Victoria Ginni Thomas have received luxury hotel stays, private jet flights and cruises over the past 20 years thanks to the generosity of their billionaire friend Harlan Crow, a prominent real estate magnate and Republican donor. In the Alito case, he traveled to Alaska on a 2008 fishing trip on a private plane owned by a fund manager whose business interests were being tried in the Supreme Court. Alito, who has not backed down from the cases, denies any wrongdoing.
In May, Chief Justice John Roberts said, without giving specific details, that the court was taking steps to “maintain the highest standards of conduct.” Democrats called for more regulation and transparency.
“This MAGA-staffed Supreme Court feels free to accept lavish gifts and vacations from its powerful, wealthy friends while they refuse to help ordinary Americans,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday.
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