'Unlikely' pair of justices join forces to fight 'historic lows' in Supreme Court approval

15 March 2024

President Joe Biden forcefully called out the U.S. Supreme Court during his fiery, passionate 2024 State of the Union address, making it clear that he strongly disapproves of their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and plans to keep fighting for abortion rights if he wins a second term in November. The justices, sitting together, didn't look happy, but reproductive rights defenders have been applauding Biden for using the SOTU to speak out.

Biden is hardly the only prominent Democrat who has been critical of the High Court, whose reputation has suffered considerably in recent years — and not only because of Dobbs.

Critics have slammed the High Court for everything from far-right Justice Clarence Thomas' controversial relationship with billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow to his wife Ginni Thomas' efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results. Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has even called for Justice Thomas to be impeached from the Court.

A Marquette Law School poll released in February found that only 40 percent of U.S. adults approved of the Court, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor has argued that the Court won't survive the "stench" of politicization.

But in an article published on March 15, the Washington Post's Ann E. Marimow reports that an "unlikely" pairs of justices — Barack Obama appointee Sotomayor and Donald Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett — have joined forces in a campaign to improve the Court's battered image.

"The unlikely pair are now headlining joint public appearances to make the case for disagreeing more agreeably at a time when the country is more polarized than ever and public opinion of the Supreme Court is at historic lows, with approval divided sharply along partisan lines," Marimow explains. "The justices are at the center of a huge number of politically consequential disputes, all falling in an especially polarized presidential election year. The opinions they issue from their stately courthouse, in view of the U.S. Capitol, often contain heated language and reveal vigorous disagreement. But sitting side by side onstage at two recent events, Barrett and Sotomayor insisted the vitriol ends there."

At one of those events, Marimow notes, Sotomayor looked at Barrett and said, "When we disagree, our pens are sharp. But on a personal level, we never translate that into our relationships with one another."

Barrett, at a National Governors Association event in February, told attendees, "We don't sit on opposite sides of an aisle. We all wear the same color black robe. We don't have red robes or blue robes. Our loyalty lies to the Constitution and the Court."

Marimow recalls that another unlikely pair of Supreme Court justices — liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who Barrett replaced) and Ronald Reagan appointee Antonin Scalia — "were the Court's most storied odd couple, attending the opera and traveling together."

Jeffrey Fisher, a Stanford University law professor and co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, told the Washington Post, "This is not a new concept, but it's never been more important than it is right now…. We desperately need models for civil discourse across disagreement."

Read the full Washington Post report at this link (subscription required).

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