Rulings renew questions over US Supreme Court’s ideology

The US Supreme Court compounded angst over its lurch to the right this week with landmark rulings on education and the treatment of LGBT people that have left many Americans questioning its impartiality and authority.

“We’ve got a really conservative court right now,” lamented Mina Schultz, 37, an activist protesting outside the white marble edifice on Friday.

A majority of Americans like Schultz — particularly those with progressive politics — feel at odds with the powerful institution, which is responsible for deciding society’s biggest questions, from the legal status of abortion to the rights of undocumented migrants.

Once revered, disaffection with the country’s highest court is now at an all-time high, according to multiple polls, a year after its historic decision to end federal protections for abortion access nationwide.

“In the end, the conservatives came together in important cases to solidify a conservative and deeply partisan approach to the law,” said Susan Liebell, a professor at St Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

‘Culture wars’

The court’s conservative majority — six out of nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents — said Thursday the consideration of race and ethnicity in university admissions was unconstitutional.

On Friday it ruled that certain private businesses could refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons, and then the justices struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program.

The Democratic leader has often appeared powerless in the face of the elite judicial body, which was largely overhauled by his predecessor Donald Trump.

“This is not a normal court,” an exasperated Biden told reporters on Thursday.

In an interview with MSNBC, he said: “Its value system is different, and its respect for institutions is different.”

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, agreed that the latest controversial decisions demonstrated the conservative majority inserting itself into the “culture wars” polarizing America.

“It’s difficult to see how that’s going to change,” he told AFP.

Repeated scandals

The strongest criticism, though, has come from inside the court itself.

“The six unelected members of today’s majority upend the status quo based on their policy preferences about what race in America should be like, but is not, and their preferences for a veneer of colorblindness in a society where race has always mattered and continues to matter in fact and in law,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a scathing dissent on behalf of the three progressives.

A series of embarrassing revelations about the largesse accepted by certain justices, all of whom are appointed for life, has recently raised further questions about the court.

The court’s most conservative member, Clarence Thomas, was found to have accepted luxury holidays over a period of decades from a billionaire known for his donations to Republican causes.

“The hypocrisy is clear: as justices accept lavish, six-figure gifts, they don’t dare to help Americans saddled with student loan debt, instead siding with the powerful, big-monied interests,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Little chance of reform

Each controversial decision by the court is accompanied by the same calls for reform — either by increasing the number of judges or by limiting the length of their terms.

“We need judicial reform,” said progressive lawmaker Katie Porter.

But such profound change — opposed by conservatives — appears unlikely, as Republicans run the House of Representatives and Democrats need the support of at least nine Republicans in the Senate to pass most legislation in any case.

Even an initially open-minded Biden, who launched a commission in 2021 to study possible reform of the court, has come out against tinkering with the make-up of the bench.

“That may do too much harm,” he said this week. “If we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that’s not healthy.”