The Supreme Court thread

[Rewind]

President Donald Trump packed the Supreme Court with three right-wing Trump loyalists. The Court recently expanded gun rights and overturned Roe v. Wade. In March 2022, we learned that Virginia Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, had pressured White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and had pressured Arizona Republicans to reject Biden's victory in the state and appoint electors who would vote for Trump. Also in March, the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump has to provide documents requested by the January 6 select committee investigating the deadly, Trump-incited Capitol riot. The vote was 8-1. The lone dissenter was Clarence Thomas. Hmmm.

Public confidence in the Supreme Court is at an all-time low. A Gallup poll released June 23 showed only 25% of Americans have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the Supreme Court, down from 40% in September 2021.

Ketanji Brown Jackson to join a Supreme Court in turmoil
CNN, Jun 29 2022 3:41 PM ET

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is set to join the Supreme Court on June 30, making history as the first female African-American Justice and beginning what could be a decades-long tenure. But as she starts her job, the court is in turmoil. The country is reeling from the aftereffects of the most consequential term in decades, where the majority upended a half century of law on abortion by reversing Roe v. Wade and expanded gun rights for the first time in more than a decade. The Justices' opinions revealed an underbelly of rage. Not only were the Justices attacking the reasoning of their opponents in the case at hand but they renewed grievances aired in previous opinions.

Things will not calm down anytime soon. New challenges related to women's reproductive health, the Second Amendment and even same-sex marriage are likely to swirl in state and federal courts across the country. Related disputes will make their way back to the high court in some form, greeting the nine justices who are irretrievably divided on many social issues.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/polit...urt/index.html

[Rewind]

To summarize: Gun owners have rights. Women and Native Americans do not.

Supreme Court hands defeat to Native American tribes in Oklahoma

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/29/11087...icans-oklahoma

Justice Neil Gorsuch fumes that the Supreme Court 'failed' to 'honor this Nation's promises' as it rolled back tribal authority in Oklahoma

https://www.businessinsider.com/gors...klahoma-2022-6

[Rewind]

Almost every story about Jackson identifies her as a "black woman" or an "African-American woman." Why do the news media feel it necessary to point out her race and her sex? They never refer to John Roberts or Neil Gorsuch or Brett Kavanaugh as a "white man" or Samuel Alito as an "Italian-American man."

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history as Supreme Court's first black woman justice

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...rt/7772768001/

[Rewind]

While campaigning in 2016, Donald Trump promised to revive the coal industry and called global warming a "hoax." Retrumplicans love fossil fuels and coal. They are opposed to clean energy and they do not care about global warming or the environment. The Supreme Court, which is packed with right-wing Trump loyalists, just handed the Retrumplicans a victory which will cause further damage to our environment.

Supreme Court limits EPA's authority to regulate power plants' greenhouse gas emissions
CBS News, Jun 30 2022 2:31 PM ET

The Supreme Court today limited the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, delivering a significant blow to the Biden administration's efforts to fight climate change. The court divided 6-3 along ideological lines in finding that Congress, through the Clean Air Act, did not grant the EPA the authority to adopt on its own a regulatory scheme to cap carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to combat global warming. The decision is a victory for a group of Republican-led states and coal companies in their yearslong bid to curtail the EPA's power to issue regulations intended to curb carbon emissions.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates...gas-emissions/

[Rewind]

Keep in mind that petitions and protest marches almost never accomplish anything – but a Supreme Court Justice can indeed be impeached. In 1804, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Samuel Chase for refusing to dismiss biased jurors and for excluding or limiting defense witnesses in two politically sensitive cases. He was acquitted by the Senate.

More than 700,000 sign petition calling for Clarence Thomas to be impeached
The Hill, Jul 1 2022

More than 700,000 people have signed a petition calling for Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The petition, made by the liberal advocacy group MoveOn, was created after the Supreme Court overturned Roe and while controversy swirls around his wife's political activism. It has more than 786,000 signatures as of Friday evening.

The petition notes that Thomas was among the majority of Justices who ruled that there was not a Constitutional right to an abortion and alluded to his concurring opinion in that case, in which he suggested the Supreme Court should revisit cases that established the right to contraceptive access and same-sex marriage. The petition also blasts Thomas for not recusing himself in cases relating to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot after news reports surfaced that Ginni Thomas had reached out to Arizona state lawmakers urging them to reject the 2020 election results and had contacted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows over rejecting the election’s outcome.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...hed/ar-AAZ5NO9

[Rewind]

The Supreme Court's website ( https://www.supremecourt.gov/ ) explains the Court's function: "As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution." The website neither explains, nor attempts to justify, how as few as five people can make decisions which affect the lives of tens of millions of Americans, decisions which often do not reflect the will of the majority.

60% of Americans approved of the Supreme Court last July. Now, it's 38%, according to a new poll.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/polit...oll/index.html

[Rewind]

While President, immigrant-hating Donald Trump stacked the Supreme Court with right-wing, pro-Trump Justices. Not surprisingly, the Court today refused to freeze a lower court's order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from putting a limit on arrests of immigrants. It's a loss for Biden – and a win for Trump.

Justice Jackson dissents in first vote as Supreme Court won't reinstate Biden immigration policies

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/polit...son/index.html

[Rewind]

This was to be expected after Donald Trump stacked the Supreme Court with right-wing, pro-Trump Justices.

The Supreme Court’s 'crisis of legitimacy' is going from bad to worse: report

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mark...rt/ar-AA12i5Yf

[Rewind]

The Supreme Court, which Donald Trump packed with right-wing, pro-Trump Justices, is moving farther and farther to the right. That is truly scary.

'Pro-religion'? Supreme Court abandons long-standing religious liberty principles
Conservative supermajority is tearing down the wall between church and state.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...ty/8139768001/

[Rewind]

The Supreme Court, which Donald Trump stacked with right-wing, pro-Trump Justices, cares more about the rights of Donald Trump than about the rights of anybody else.

Supreme Court won’t consider rights for US Territory citizens – even after Neil Gorsuch slammed its racist precedents

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news...ts/ar-AA133FUi