Plog Number 13
Hello friends, hope all is well. As promised, I will talk about the Supreme Court and their upcoming agenda. Their next session begins on October 3, 2022. On the one hand, it’s a lengthy amount of time for their “break”. Imagine what you could do if you were off from July through October. I must have read that one wrong. But on the other hand it may be a good thing that they can’t decide anything while on break. They certainly outdid themselves with the Dobbs case. With the composition of this court, I think I am glad that they aren’t doing anything right now. They will probably use the time to read up on what is ahead of them and come back with knives sharpened. Gangsta Style. A Judicial Coup!
The issues they will be hearing range from medium scary to super-sized scary. If I were to rate them here is my take from least to most scary.
*Affirmative Action
**North Carolina Redistricting for Gerrymandering
***Free Speech and Gay Rights
****Challenge to Clean Water Act
*****Alabama case involving voting rights
* Affirmative Action has been on the chopping block for years. I remember the Bakke case from 1978 where the court said it was unlawful to hold 16 out of 100 seats for minority students at UC Berkely. In a country that is wildly racist both systemically and now openly I think these cases will give a red light to any attempts of schools to take race into consideration. Clancy thinks we all should pull ourselves up by our “Bootstraps”. Anyway the cases are out of UNC and Harvard University.
** North Carolina has a ripened case brought by Republicans which asserts that States should be able to draw their districts as they see fit. Once again this would put the power in the State’s hands. The State’s General Assembly would draw the maps and courts would have no right of review. They base this on the US Constitutions Elections Clause. The name of the case is Moore V Harper. I can just feel the rights seeping out of our collective veins.
***There are 3 cases involved in this section. They involve the right of married couples to use contraceptives Griswold v Connecticut, the right to engage in private sexual acts Lawrence v Texas, and the right to same sex marriages Obergefell v Hodges. Clancy Thomas has said that the precedents in all 3 had “demonstrably erroneous decisions”. We will watch out for these because to me all three of them seem so private and untouchable.
****This case comes from West Virginia and could pave the way for businesses to pollute our waterways with less interference from the EPA. This one really gets me. Who has children and potentially grandchildren and doesn’t want them to have clean, healthy water in favor of big business?? The decision goes My descendants health and lives versus the almighty dollar and big Business. That case is West Virginia v EPA.
*****This one takes top banana for me!! This one would allow electors in states to throw out the will of the voter in favor of whomever they want to install. Sound familiar? “I just need you to find me 11,000 more votes” The case involves Gerrymandering according to race so that white candidates will stand a chance. 45 publically endorsed the practice involved, so you know it is shady. The name is Merril v Milligan. So, you can’t use race to even out educational rights but you can use it for voting advantages? WTF? There is also an Arkansas case brought by the NAACP and ACLU regarding voter maps.
I see a lot of 6-3 decisions coming out in the fall. Ketanji Brown Jackson has to recuse herself on the Harvard case because she used to sit on the Board of Trustees. I hope this post wasn’t too long or boring but I think it is pertinent. I have tried to put the main ideas into this Plog. My rewrite is non-conclusive and could be argued, but I just want to put it out here so we are aware and watching those Supremes. So Scary! Until we meet again. Reclaim!
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