Letters for July 10, 2023

Radical Supreme Court decisions

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that the “arc of the moral universe … bends towards justice.” He would be appalled by today’s Supreme Court, where six Republicans (three appointed by Donald Trump) seek to rule America from the bench, shattering the arc of progress towards a more perfect union.

This radical court has gutted women’s reproductive rights, weakened the EPA, barred affirmative action, allowed bigoted Christians to discriminate against gays, and prevented student debt relief. President Joe Biden was right to note last month that this is “not a normal court.”

These rulings come amidst corruption scandals that further degrade the Court’s legitimacy. Justice Clarence Thomas, a beneficiary of affirmative action, voted to deny it to others. He also opposed COVID-related student debt forgiveness for 45 million Americans – a stunning hypocrisy after recent revelations from Pro Publica that Thomas has a billionaire sugar daddy, Harlan Crow, who secretly paid Thomas’ grandnephew’s tuition for years.

Pro Publica also revealed that Justice Samuel Alito, architect of the disastrous Dobbs ruling, also has his own secret patron, billionaire hedge fund manager and GOP megadonor Paul Singer. Alito didn’t report luxury travel to Alaska on Singer’s private jet and failed to recuse himself from a Supreme Court ruling that richly rewarded Singer in a debt dispute with Argentina.

Chief Justice John Roberts, whose wife earns millions to recruit lawyers for law firms appearing before the court, remains silent on a missing ethics code. Without one, expect further corruption.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane