In the long history of racial (in)justice in American governance, the Supreme Court has played an outsized role, sometimes in positive ways, like in Brown v. Board of Education, and other times in harmful ways, like Shelby County v. Holder, which paved the way for voter suppression.The likely confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett accelerates a right-wing shift in the Court with grave implications for BIPOC folks in America. Barrett carries a far-right record rife with statements and rulings that deny health care rights, reproductive rights, labor rights, protection from police, immigrant justice, and LGBTQ+ rights while supporting qualified immunity and illegal search and seizure. A fervent “originalist”, Barrett has been vague and evasive when questioned directly on issues of racial justice.
Barrett’s confirmation puts the rights of BIPOC folks disproportionately at risk as they will be most affected by upcoming rulings on issues including health care, juvenile imprisonment, anti-discrimination, voting rights, climate change, reproductive rights, and immigration. By the end of November the Court will consider Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia, which could grant foster care agencies the right to exclude same-sex couples on the basis of religious beliefs; California vs. Texas, which will challenge the Affordable Care Act, potentially resulting in the loss of insurance for 20 million people (disproportionately BIPOC); and a case that will review Trump's exclusion of undocumented residents from the 2020 census.
The probable October 22 Senate confirmation of Barrett will be the result of a 40+ year organized right-wing judiciary invasion. In the 1970s, corporate interests saw “attacks” on their financial interest by the anti-war, environmental, civil rights, and women’s rights movements. Since then, a sophisticated multi-million dollar system has developed to pick and confirm conservative justices.. Dark-money-funded organizations hunt for plaintiffs of convenience to bring cases before the Supreme Court that advance the big donors’ agenda, while similar organizations appear by the orchestrated dozen as “friends of the Court” to instruct the corporate-selected judges how to rule (e.g., against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau).
The history of this process was summed up during the current hearings by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Last year, Whitehouse catalogued 73 majority opinions by the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court that seemed to align with partisan Republican interests in areas spanning voting and money in politics, protection of corporations from liability and regulation, civil rights, and advancing a far-right social agenda.
The fact that a non-elected body holds this much power has been increasingly called into question, particularly as many of us are reckoning with the white supremacist systems that have built and dominated our nation’s governing. In our struggle for racial justice, we must challenge the dynamics that create a system of judicial minority rule at the expense of BIPOC communities. In the near-term, this translates into a fight for court reform, the promotion of fair courts, the imposition of term limits on judges, and a curb on spending. With the election approaching, we need to strengthen our courts at every level by learning about judicial races in our areas. For more specific ways to take action this week, read on!
Take care,
SURJ NYC