Thursday marked the end of the latest term for the Supreme Court, its second under Chief Justice Roberts. And, although Justice Roberts appointment was a huge win for the conservatives, it was minor compared to the difference made when Sandra Day O'Connor inexplicably stepped down during the term of a Republican President, which led to the appointment of Samuel Alito, marking the present courts 5 to 4 status, in the favor of the right. The only hope for a liberal viewpoint to make it through the court is Justice Kennedy, who has shown his lack of political bias, although even this proclivity was sharply curtailed this term. In fact, the present court sided with the President over 80% of the time in the session which just ended. It certainly bares mentioning that 7 of the present 9 justices were appointed by Republican Presidents.
Yes, restraint was shown by the court, however, modest gains garnered by the conservatives have set the stage for major wins to follow. The best example of this was the ruling upholding the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Act, despite its refusal to address the health of the birth mother. Can the court eventually throw out Roe v. Wade? With Thomas, Roberts and Stevens, it is certainly a possibility down the road.
It has ruled to immunize the White House from law suits resulting from its faith based programs, which effectively utilize funding for the promotion of religion. The court also sided with the administration when it curtailed anti-trust claims brought about from manufacturers setting minimum retail pricing, and additionally set new limits on corporate shareholders ability to sue. Another victory for the administration was to chip away at the Mc Cain / Feingold act, ruling that campaign advertising by corporations and unions were "core political expressions."
While the court upheld the corporations right to political expression, the court also cut back students right to free speech, and the extent to which they might display their views. This, along with their willingness to not only strike down the school districts attempt to integrate schools, but to make any school decisions solely determined by race, has sent liberal educators reeling.
Although minor victories were won by the conservatives (38 wins), it should be noted in closing that the liberals did garner at least some modicum of representation, as the court has ruled that the EPA had the authority to regulate carbon dioxide (greenhouse gases --throwing the Bush administrations views on global warming into the trash heap), and if not deciding, at least agreeing to hear appeals in the next session from Gitmo prisoners on their "enemy combatant designation", which has effectively denied their any hope of attaining even the slightest morsel of habeus corpus.
All in all, a very interesting year from the Supreme court, which (thankfully from my view) rendered one of the fewest yearly totals of decisions in modern history. Will this court keep on its right wing path? Experts say yes, as do I. Are they willing to, if not overturn, at least chisel away at major landmark decisions? ABSOLUTELY. Nothing is sacred. Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade each took hits in this last session, and you do not have to be an expert to see that more is yet to come. Fasten your seat belts, folks. Next year with Roberts at the helm, Thomas foaming at the mouth, and their seeming ability to rein in Kennedy when absolutely necessary could mark a very interesting year next term.
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