During the past few weeks, the Supreme Court issued rulings on a variety of cases that were argued throughout the past year. Many of the decisions were substantial, including rulings that ended race-based affirmative action; allowed a website designer to deny wedding site services that would feature same-sex content; struck down an Alabama district map that unfairly represented African American voters; and much more. Although these cases are interesting, it is not the constitutionality or legal precedent of the rulings that concerns me. It is the morality of the Supreme Court.
Let me start with one of the recent cases: Moore v. Harper. The case asked if the state legislature of North Carolina had sole power over election-related decisions as per the Elections clause of Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution. The petitioner in this case was advocating for the Independent State Legislature Theory, which contends that other parts of state governments, like governors or state courts, cannot veto or strike down various voting-related decisions.
If affirmed, state legislatures could institute additional barriers to voting, for example, ending early voting or mail-in voting. Furthermore, there would be no state-level checks on the ability of legislatures to gerrymander districts to their party’s advantage. Although the ruling was in favor of the respondent, thereby invalidating this theory, Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented. No matter the justification, undemocratic opinions are something this country can ill-afford.
In 303 Creative v. Elenis (the aforementioned case about the website designer), a theoretical photo of a same-sex couple on a theoretical wedding website was considered by the Court as speech that the website designer makes; therefore, the designer in question could refuse to make such speech per the First Amendment.
Although I am no expert, the idea a photo taken of a same-sex couple can be the speech of someone else who puts that photo on a wedding website is quite absurd to me. If the same case were made based on race – a website designer adhered to a religion that did not allow interracial couples, and therefore refused to make wedding sites for an interracial couple since it required them to put up a photo of this couple – we would view that as both extraordinarily immoral as well as unconstitutional.
The only difference is that religions that ban interracial marriages are extremely rare, while religions that ban same-sex marriages are quite common. The commonality of a belief does not make it morally or constitutionally correct. Tragically, six justices disagreed.
The personal conduct of certain justices provides additional reason for alarm. For the sake of brevity, I will not even discuss the confirmations of Justice Brett Kavanaugh or Justice Thomas (look up Anita Hill or Christine Blasey Ford) but rather recent financial impropriety.
A top aide to Justice Thomas received Venmo payments from seven lawyers with cases before the Supreme Court, using payment reasons like “Thomas Christmas Party.” A company owned by billionaire real-estate developer Harlan Crow paid for Thomas’s grand-nephew – who Thomas said he raised “like a son” – to go to various private schools. That is not to mention that Thomas went on yearly trips with Crow, where superyachts and private jets were prominent forms of transportation.
Justice Alito took a luxury fishing vacation with billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer, whose hedge fund had as many as 10 cases before the Court. Other concerning reports emerged regarding Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff (who are paid with taxpayer dollars) spending time advertising her books to schools.
It is for these reasons that we cannot rely on the Supreme Court to be the independent, aloof, civic-minded experts we take for granted. New rules – perhaps as shallow as a stricter code of conduct or perhaps as harsh as term limits – are needed to keep the Supreme Court in check.
The health of our democracy depends in no small part on this institution.
(Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.)
