In 370 days, Supreme Court conservatives dash decades of abortion and affirmative action precedents
In 370 days, Supreme Court conservatives dash decades of abortion and affirmative action precedents
FILE - Members of the Supreme Court sit for a new group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. Bottom row, from left, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Top row, from left, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. Overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. Over a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both of those goals a reality. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands as she and members of the Supreme Court pose for a new group portrait following her addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. Over a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both of those goals a reality. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, right, accompanied by her lawyer, Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom, second from left, speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022, after her case was heard before the Supreme Court. In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday, June 30, 2023, Smith who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - Jordan Braithwaite, 21, center, an undergrad at Grambling State University facing over $10,000 in student loans, demonstrates outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 30, 2023, in Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court has ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debts for millions of Americans. Conservative justices were in the majority in Friday’s 6-3 decision that effectively killed the $400 billion plan that President Joe Biden announced last year. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Demonstrators stand outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, as the court hears arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act on Nov. 9, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has preserved the system that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children. The court left in place the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native homes. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
FILE - Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands outside the Supreme Court with Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, following her formal investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - People on both sides of the debate rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday, June 30, 2023, Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
FILE - Gerald Groff, a former postal worker whose case will be argued before the Supreme Court, speaks during a television interview with the Associated Press at a chapel at the Hilton DoubleTree Resort in Lancaster, Pa., March 8, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday, June 29, used the case of a Christian mailman who didn’t want to work Sundays to solidify protections for workers who are religious. In a unanimous decision the justices made clear that workers who ask for religious accommodations, such as taking the Sabbath off, should get them unless their employers show doing so would result in “substantial increased costs” to the business. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
FILE - Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., left, joins activists in their call for ethics reform in the U.S. Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Anti-abortion protesters celebrate following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)
FILE - The Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Supporters of the Clean Water Act demonstrate outside the Supreme Court, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Washington, as the court begins arguments in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The court, by a 5-4 vote, also sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, although all nine justices rejected the administration’s position. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Members of the Supreme Court sit for a new group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. Bottom row, from left, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Top row, from left, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Members of the Supreme Court sit for a new group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. Bottom row, from left, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Top row, from left, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. Overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. Over a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both of those goals a reality. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. Overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. Over a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both of those goals a reality. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands as she and members of the Supreme Court pose for a new group portrait following her addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands as she and members of the Supreme Court pose for a new group portrait following her addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. Over a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both of those goals a reality. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. Over a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both of those goals a reality. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, right, accompanied by her lawyer, Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom, second from left, speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022, after her case was heard before the Supreme Court. In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday, June 30, 2023, Smith who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, right, accompanied by her lawyer, Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom, second from left, speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022, after her case was heard before the Supreme Court. In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday, June 30, 2023, Smith who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - Jordan Braithwaite, 21, center, an undergrad at Grambling State University facing over $10,000 in student loans, demonstrates outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 30, 2023, in Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court has ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debts for millions of Americans. Conservative justices were in the majority in Friday’s 6-3 decision that effectively killed the $400 billion plan that President Joe Biden announced last year. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Jordan Braithwaite, 21, center, an undergrad at Grambling State University facing over $10,000 in student loans, demonstrates outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 30, 2023, in Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court has ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loan debts for millions of Americans. Conservative justices were in the majority in Friday’s 6-3 decision that effectively killed the $400 billion plan that President Joe Biden announced last year. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Demonstrators stand outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, as the court hears arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act on Nov. 9, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has preserved the system that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children. The court left in place the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native homes. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
FILE - Demonstrators stand outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, as the court hears arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act on Nov. 9, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has preserved the system that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children. The court left in place the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native homes. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
FILE - Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands outside the Supreme Court with Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, following her formal investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands outside the Supreme Court with Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, following her formal investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - People on both sides of the debate rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday, June 30, 2023, Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
FILE - People on both sides of the debate rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Friday, June 30, 2023, Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
FILE - Gerald Groff, a former postal worker whose case will be argued before the Supreme Court, speaks during a television interview with the Associated Press at a chapel at the Hilton DoubleTree Resort in Lancaster, Pa., March 8, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday, June 29, used the case of a Christian mailman who didn’t want to work Sundays to solidify protections for workers who are religious. In a unanimous decision the justices made clear that workers who ask for religious accommodations, such as taking the Sabbath off, should get them unless their employers show doing so would result in “substantial increased costs” to the business. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
FILE - Gerald Groff, a former postal worker whose case will be argued before the Supreme Court, speaks during a television interview with the Associated Press at a chapel at the Hilton DoubleTree Resort in Lancaster, Pa., March 8, 2023. The Supreme Court on Thursday, June 29, used the case of a Christian mailman who didn’t want to work Sundays to solidify protections for workers who are religious. In a unanimous decision the justices made clear that workers who ask for religious accommodations, such as taking the Sabbath off, should get them unless their employers show doing so would result in “substantial increased costs” to the business. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
FILE - Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., left, joins activists in their call for ethics reform in the U.S. Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., left, joins activists in their call for ethics reform in the U.S. Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Anti-abortion protesters celebrate following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)
FILE - Anti-abortion protesters celebrate following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)
FILE - The Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - The Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Supporters of the Clean Water Act demonstrate outside the Supreme Court, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Washington, as the court begins arguments in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The court, by a 5-4 vote, also sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, although all nine justices rejected the administration’s position. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Supporters of the Clean Water Act demonstrate outside the Supreme Court, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Washington, as the court begins arguments in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The court, by a 5-4 vote, also sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, although all nine justices rejected the administration’s position. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades.
In a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both a reality.
Last June, the court ended nationwide protections for abortion rights. This past week, the court’s conservative majority decided that race-conscious admissions programs at the oldest private and public colleges in the country, Harvard and the University of North Carolina, were unlawful.
Precedents that had stood since the 1970s were overturned, explicitly in the case of abortion and effectively in the affirmative action context.
“That is what is notable about this court. It’s making huge changes in highly salient areas in a very short period of time,” said Tara Leigh Grove, a law professor at the University of Texas.
As ethical questions swirled around the court and public trust in the institution had already dipped to a 50-year low, there were other consequential decisions in which the six conservatives prevailed.
They rejected the Biden administration’s $400 billion student loan forgiveness program and held that a Christian graphic artist can refuse on free speech grounds to design websites for same-sex couples, despite a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and other characteristics.
The court, by a 5-4 vote, also sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, although all nine justices rejected the administration’s position.
Affirmative action was arguably the biggest constitutional decision of the year, and it showcased fiercely opposing opinions from the court’s two Black justices, Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
They offered sharply contrasting takes on affirmative action. Thomas was in the majority to end it. Jackson, in her first year on the court, was in dissent.
The past year also had a number of notable surprises.
Differing coalitions of conservative and liberal justices ruled in favor of Black voters in an Alabama redistricting case and refused to embrace broad arguments in a North Carolina redistricting case that could have left state legislatures unchecked and dramatically altered elections for Congress and president.
The court also ruled for the Biden administration in a fight over deportation priorities and left in place the Indian Child Welfare Act, the federal law aimed at keeping Native American children with Native families.
Those cases reflected the control that Chief Justice John Roberts asserted, or perhaps reasserted, over the court following a year in which the other five conservatives moved more quickly than he wanted in some areas, including abortion.
Roberts wrote a disproportionate share of the term’s biggest cases: conservative outcomes on affirmative action and the student loan plan, and liberal victories in Alabama and North Carolina.
The Alabama case may have been the most surprising because Roberts had consistently sought to narrow the landmark Voting Rights Act since his days as a young lawyer in the Reagan administration. As chief justice, he wrote the decision 10 years ago that gutted a key provision of the law.
But in the Alabama case and elsewhere, Roberts was part of majorities that rejected the most aggressive legal arguments put forth by Republican elected officials and conservative legal advocates.
The mixed bag of decisions almost seemed designed to counter arguments about the court’s legitimacy, raised by Democratic and liberal critics — and some justices — in response to last year’s abortion ruling, among others. The narrative was amplified by published reports of undisclosed, paid jet travel and fancy trips for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito from billionaire Republican donors.
“I don’t think the court consciously takes opinion into account,” Grove said. “But I think if there’s anyone who might consciously think about these issues, it’s the institutionalist, the chief justice. He’s been extremely concerned about the attacks on the Supreme Court.”
On the term’s final day, Roberts urged the public to not mistake disagreement among the justices for disparagement of the court. “Any such misperception would be harmful to this institution and our country,” he wrote in the student loans case in response to a stinging dissent by Justice Elena Kagan.
Roberts has resisted instituting a code of ethics for the court and has questioned whether Congress has the authority to impose one. Still, he has said, without providing specifics, that the justices would do more to show they adhere to high ethical standards.
Some conservative law professors rejected the idea that the court bowed to outside pressures, consciously or otherwise.
“There were a lot of external atmospherics that really could have affected court business, but didn’t,” said Jennifer Mascott, a George Mason University law professor.
Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, pointed to roughly equal numbers of major decisions that could be characterized as politically liberal or conservative.
Levey said conservatives “were not disappointed by this term.” Democrats and their allies “warned the nation about an ideologically extreme Supreme Court but wound up cheering as many major decisions as they decried,” Levey wrote in an email.
But some liberal critics were not mollified.
Brian Fallon, director of the court reform group Demand Justice, called the past year “another disastrous Supreme Court term” and mocked experts who “squint to find so-called silver linings in the Court’s decisions to suggest all is not lost, or they will emphasize one or two so-called moderate decisions from the term to suggest the Court is not as extreme as we think and can still be persuaded from time to time.”
Biden himself said on MSNBC on Thursday that the current court has “done more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history.” He cited as examples the overturning of abortion protections and other decisions that had been precedent for decades.
Still, Biden said, he thought some on the high court “are beginning to realize their legitimacy is being questioned in ways it hasn’t been questioned in the past.”
The justices are now embarking on a long summer break. They return to the bench on the first Monday in October for a term that so far appears to lack the blockbuster cases that made the past two terms so momentous.
The court will examine the legal fallout from last year’s major expansion of gun rights, in a case over a domestic violence gun ban that was struck down by a lower court.
A new legal battle over abortion also could make its way to the court in coming months. In April, the court preserved access to mifepristone, a drug used in the most common method of abortion, while a lawsuit over it makes its way through federal court.
The conservative majority also will have opportunities to further constrain federal regulatory agencies, including a case that asks them to overturn the so-called Chevron decision that defers to regulators when they seek to give effect to big-picture, sometimes vague, laws written by Congress. The 1984 decision has been cited by judges more than 15,000 times.
Just seven years ago, months before Trump’s surprising presidential victory, then-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflected on the term that had just ended and made two predictions. One was way off base and the other was strikingly accurate.
In July 2016, the court had just ended a term in which the justices upheld a University of Texas affirmative action plan and struck down state restrictions on abortion clinics.
Her first prediction was that those issues would not soon return to the high court. Her second was that if Trump became president, “everything is up for grabs.”
Ginsburg’s death in 2020 allowed Trump to put Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the court and cement conservative control.
Commenting on the student loan decision, liberal legal scholar Melissa Murray wrote on Twitter that Biden’s plan “was absolutely undone by the Court that his predecessor built.”
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