Conservative Majority in Supreme Court Threatens Our Politics and Most Basic Freedoms

Think Progress. Posted October 6, 2009.

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ian Milhiser, and Zaid Jilani

October 5 marks the beginning of a new Supreme Court term, a session that will marked by high-profile cases that the Court's conservative majority could use to reshape the law. In its first full term together, the Roberts Court's conservative bloc immediately began cutting back on women's reproductive freedom, entrenching public school segregation, and undermining equal pay in the workforce, among other things, prompting retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to comment that she fears that some of her decisions "are being dismantled" by the current, more conservative-leaning court. "If you think you've been helpful, and then it's dismantled, you think, 'Oh, dear,'" she said. "But life goes on. It's not always positive." Yet while the conservative justices are perfectly willing to thumb their noses at precedent, they occasionally restrain themselves from politically-charged rulings likely to inspire a congressional backlash. Last term, for example, the Court pleasantly surprised the civil rights community by resisting the temptation to eviscerate two landmark prohibitions on race discrimination. This term, the Court has already agreed to hear more potentially-earthshaking cases than it has in years; the only question is how aggressive the Court will be in pushing its right-wing agenda.

PLAYING TO THE BASE: No one was more excited about President Bush's appointees to the Supreme Court than the right-wing "Justice Sunday" crowd, which crowed that by confirming Bush's judges, conservatives could "bring the rule and reign of the Cross to America and we can change America on our watch." This term, the conservative majority Bush built has plenty of opportunities to reward these supporters. The most famous case on the Court's docket is McDonald v. City of Chicago, which could overrule a 123 year-old rule holding that the states are free to regulate firearms. Conservatives, however, have far more than guns at stake this term. In United States v. Comstock, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito will have their first opportunity to weigh in on the scope of Congress' power to enact laws that substantially affect interstate commerce. Should the Court roll back Congress' power, they would delight "tenthers" enraptured by the notion that every law conservatives disagree with somehow violates Congress' constitutional authority. Additionally, in a case called Salazar v. Buono, the Court could tear down the wall of separation between church and state. For years, O'Connor was the key fifth vote upholding the Constitution's ban on government endorsements of religion, and Alito is widely expected to provide the final vote to allow this ban to be whittled away into near non-existence.

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