The US Supreme Court has already ruled out abortion rights. The very conservative body begins a new session on Monday that could end with more backlash, particularly for the rights of African Americans or gay couples.
Discrimination, suffrage, immigration… Several controversial cases are on the menu of the High Court, which is making a comeback for the first time in its history with a black woman among its judges. The arrival of Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, does not alter the balance in the temple of American law: He retains a solid conservative majority of six out of nine justices, including three chosen by Republican Donald Trump.
Sanctifying the carrying of arms and restricting women’s rights
In 2021-2022, the Court “relyed on this conservative bloc to reconsider long-established jurisprudence” and “appears poised to proceed (…) without qualification,” according to David Cole, legal director of the powerful ACLU Civil organization Rights Advocate.
In June, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling that had guaranteed American women the right to abortion for nearly 50 years, sanctified the right to bear arms, strengthened the public profile of religion, and restricted public powers. His decisions left left confused, but pleased conservative circles, which for years denounced the court’s “judicial militancy” which had become the arbiter of important societal debates.
Positive discrimination “in the crosshairs”
Ilya Shapiro, an expert at the Manhattan Conservative Institute, believes the court is “correcting the excesses” of the 1970s. For him, the 1978 ruling that positively defined the legal framework for discrimination in universities is the next “in.” . the sights of the court”.
On October 31, the Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the selection mechanisms at the prestigious Harvard University and the North Carolina Public University. These institutions, like many others, consider racial criteria to ensure student diversity and to correct the under-representation of young Black and Hispanic people that results from the United States’ racist and segregationist past.
The voting card in question
These policies, sometimes referred to as “reverse racism,” have always been the subject of challenges from the right, but appeals have always failed. The Supreme Court itself has twice ruled that universities can take certain racial criteria into account provided they aim solely to ensure the diversity of the student population.
She now seems ready to back down. In another case, related to an Alabama state election card that was on Tuesday’s menu, she was able to uncover a section of the emblematic 1965 law that put an end to racial segregation rules that restricted the right to vote for African Americans in the South.
“Major Consequences for Democracy”
This “civil rights law” provides the ability to group black voters into a constituency to ensure they have few representatives. But it’s illegal to focus them too much to reduce the weight of their voices. The stakes are high in a country where black voters are overwhelmingly voting for Democrats, while white voters are more likely to support Republicans.
Another North Carolina filing could have “serious implications for democracy,” according to Sophia Lin Lakin, who follows election issues for the ACLU. Republican-elected officials in that state are defending a new interpretation of the constitution that, if adopted by the Supreme Court, would give “local legislatures uncontrolled powers over the organization of federal elections,” she said.
allow discrimination
Five years after ruling in favor of a Christian pastry chef who refused to sell a wedding cake to a male couple, the Supreme Court will also revisit this sensitive issue, this time from a website creator. In 2018, it issued a limited-scope decision. This time around, merchants whose products are “creative” in nature could be more widely allowed to break anti-discrimination laws in the name of their religious beliefs.
If we follow this logic, “Architects may refuse to design houses for black families, pastry chefs to bake birthday cakes for Muslim children…” fears David Cole. By June 30, the deadline for its verdicts, the Supreme Court also has to rule on the policy of deporting undocumented immigrants, the death penalty or the policy of adopting Native American children.