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ATLANTA– Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, issued the following statement as the Supreme Court leaves on its summer recess:
“Last year, on the last day before justices scurried out of town — perhaps to embark upon unreported luxury vacations paid for by wealthy patrons — SCOTUS issued its long-awaited and fateful decision ripping away reproductive freedom from millions of Americans. The Dobbs decision was a dramatic and unmistakable turn to the extreme right, and this current term has seen this Court’s continuation of its crusade to reverse the progress we have made in this country.
“The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on July 9, 1868, guaranteed due process and equal protection to all, regardless of race. But it took almost 100 years before the United States Supreme Court finally gave life to those protections when, in 1954, the Court issued its seminal decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that the practice of racial segregation was a denial of equal protection under the law.
Now, just 70 years since Brown was decided, and after 50 years of whittling away at its foundation, the Court has proclaimed that the equal protection clause instead protects those with historical privilege, turning precedent on its head. People of color, particularly the descendants of slaves, have not amassed the wealth and legacy status of white people, yet are told by the Supreme Court that the playing field is already level, so it would be illegal to provide them with help.
“Five years ago, in Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Court upheld other rights for vulnerable groups. The Court said that if a state passed a public accommodations law protecting LGBTQIA+ people, business owners had to sell goods and services to gay people just like anyone else. But now, after the addition of three MAGA justices, the Court slammed the door on inclusivity. For the first time in its history, the Court told businesses that they have a constitutional right to turn away customers from a protected class. Discrimination has never been a form of protected expression, and it is heartbreaking that the Court is now allowing it.
“Finally, this Court has ruled that the Executive Branch, acting pursuant to a grant of authority from the Legislative Branch, lacks the authority to give life-changing student loan relief to more than 40 million student borrowers. The Court substitutes itself for the policy-making branches to strike down a policy it thinks helps too many people. This Court has made itself not only an arbiter of cases, but the decider of what is “good” policy, striking down a popular policy that was put in place under a duly elected President. And more than 40 million Americans are left with the fallout.
“Thankfully, this MAGA extreme-right Supreme Court has finished its business of turning progress around and hurtling our country backwards. It has temporarily salvaged Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, after gutting so much of the law that protects voting in this country. But a new term will start in the fall, and we expect the extreme, precedent-shattering opinions to continue to rip away our rights. That is why we must expand the Court, and rein in this extremist panel of MAGA politicians in robes. I am proud to have authored the Judiciary Act of 2023, because this Court has shown us that it is needed now more than ever. We must expand the Court now!”
“Last year, on the last day before justices scurried out of town — perhaps to embark upon unreported luxury vacations paid for by wealthy patrons — SCOTUS issued its long-awaited and fateful decision ripping away reproductive freedom from millions of Americans. The Dobbs decision was a dramatic and unmistakable turn to the extreme right, and this current term has seen this Court’s continuation of its crusade to reverse the progress we have made in this country.
“The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on July 9, 1868, guaranteed due process and equal protection to all, regardless of race. But it took almost 100 years before the United States Supreme Court finally gave life to those protections when, in 1954, the Court issued its seminal decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that the practice of racial segregation was a denial of equal protection under the law.
Now, just 70 years since Brown was decided, and after 50 years of whittling away at its foundation, the Court has proclaimed that the equal protection clause instead protects those with historical privilege, turning precedent on its head. People of color, particularly the descendants of slaves, have not amassed the wealth and legacy status of white people, yet are told by the Supreme Court that the playing field is already level, so it would be illegal to provide them with help.
“Five years ago, in Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Court upheld other rights for vulnerable groups. The Court said that if a state passed a public accommodations law protecting LGBTQIA+ people, business owners had to sell goods and services to gay people just like anyone else. But now, after the addition of three MAGA justices, the Court slammed the door on inclusivity. For the first time in its history, the Court told businesses that they have a constitutional right to turn away customers from a protected class. Discrimination has never been a form of protected expression, and it is heartbreaking that the Court is now allowing it.
“Finally, this Court has ruled that the Executive Branch, acting pursuant to a grant of authority from the Legislative Branch, lacks the authority to give life-changing student loan relief to more than 40 million student borrowers. The Court substitutes itself for the policy-making branches to strike down a policy it thinks helps too many people. This Court has made itself not only an arbiter of cases, but the decider of what is “good” policy, striking down a popular policy that was put in place under a duly elected President. And more than 40 million Americans are left with the fallout.
“Thankfully, this MAGA extreme-right Supreme Court has finished its business of turning progress around and hurtling our country backwards. It has temporarily salvaged Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, after gutting so much of the law that protects voting in this country. But a new term will start in the fall, and we expect the extreme, precedent-shattering opinions to continue to rip away our rights. That is why we must expand the Court, and rein in this extremist panel of MAGA politicians in robes. I am proud to have authored the Judiciary Act of 2023, because this Court has shown us that it is needed now more than ever. We must expand the Court now!”