‘This Is About Power, It Is About Privilege, and It Is Not About the People’
Blowback against the Supreme Court continues following trifecta of big rulings
The Supreme Court continues to face incredible blowback, particularly for the trio of right-wing decisions it handed down at the very end of its term late last week.
The Republican-appointed supermajority came together to reject affirmative action programs, effectively kill President Biden's plan to offer student-debt forgiveness to millions of Americans, and allow for businesses to deny service to members of the LGBTQ community.
Further, the high court is handing down these decisions with incredible implications for the lives of everyday Americans, yet continues to stumble from one ethics debacle, to another.
The court ruled against affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina in a decision that has broader implications in higher education and other sectors of American life.
It also effectively killed Biden’s student loan forgiveness program designed to help millions of Americans who would struggle with big monthly repayments.
And businesses can refuse to serve same-sex couples if doing so would violate the owners' religious beliefs, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.
Within that context, justices have been shown, time and again, for lapses in their apparent ethics, including taking lavish gifts from those who have business before the high court.
“We have no accountability for this court, no external investigation of the court. We merely rely on the justices to follow the law on their own accord. It’s not working,” said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. “We have colleagues covering for colleagues, and this court has a credibility crisis, and we need to fix it.”
The court is veering from the normal role it's historically taken, according to Maya Wiley, an American lawyer, professor, and civil rights activist.
“We will not stand by to allow anybody to say that because of who you love and who you choose to marry, any business owner or private sector gets to decide how to define whether or not you can be served because of their religious beliefs,” she said. “The frank truth is our constitution is supposed to balance all of our rights. This is about power. It is about privilege, and it is not about the people.”
Meanwhile, explicit racism and implicit bias still exist throughout all aspects of American life, and it exists in higher education institutions, which is why affirmative action was needed in the first place, said Rep Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
“What’s very troubling about this decision is we are not allowing universities to take race into account, with regard to admissions, we are allowing them to continue a legacy admissions process that disproportionately supports the wealthy and white individuals,” the congressman said. “And that is why we have a bill to cancel legacy admissions at all higher education institutions, because America is about a democracy, which means the playing field should be equitable and even for everyone.”
Please support our work…
Also, please subscribe…