The Supreme Court, in the case Marbury v. Madison, gave itself the power to conduct judicial review or to declare certain legislation unconstitutional. Recently, however, the court has used this power to declare abortion and affirmative action unconstitutional, sparking controversy across the nation.
Many people have strong opinions on these particular topics because of the political weight they hold, including the members of the Supreme Court. In Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on Roe v. Wade, he claimed that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.”
The decisions to abolish abortion and affirmative action were enabled mainly due to the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. With the nominations of conservative justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett during Donald Trump’s presidency, conservatives have gained a far greater influence in the Supreme Court.
In fact, the Martin-Quinn score, a statistical measure of a Supreme Court justice’s political leanings, claims that six of the nine justices have conservative viewpoints. This means the Supreme Court can pass more conservative policies, including abortion and affirmative action.
Considering that conservatives are typically against abortion and affirmative action, it has been apparent that the Supreme Court has implemented its own bias into its decisions on constitutionality. Sure, Supreme Courts have had political majorities in the past, but they have never wielded that majority to the extent we see today.
According to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, “A judge should perform the duties of the office fairly, impartially, and faithfully.” Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Supreme Court, which is supposed to set the example for all the other courts in the nation, is straying away from this section of the code of conduct by implementing its own conservative bias into how the Constitution should be interpreted.
These recent interpretations of the Constitution give way to the question of whether the Supreme Court is serving the people or not. According to Pew Research, 61% of Americans support abortion. As a result of this support for abortion, protests erupted across the nation when the Supreme Court abolished Roe v. Wade, calling them out for going against what they had believed in.
Political decisions with this level of magnitude should be handled by the people, not by a group of nine individuals. The people can do so through elections and influencing the legislature, but they cannot change anything about the Supreme Court and its operations. When a group of nine individuals determines the nation’s politics, that becomes an oligarchy where too much power is put in the hands of just a few people.
As Abraham Lincoln once said in his Gettysburg Address, the government is meant to be “of the people, by the people and for the people.” However, the Supreme Court is diverging from the statement with its conservative influence. Instead of being a source of objectivity and justice, the Supreme Court has become an outlet to advance political agendas. The court’s agenda advancement demonstrates an abuse of power, and this abuse will not result in just a few decisions but from a lifetime of biased judgment to come.
*This editorial reflects the views of the Scot Scoop Editorial Board and was written by Evan Leong.
The Editorial Board voted 7 in agreement, 7 somewhat in agreement, and 3 refrained from voting.
