By this we’re not talking of the present Philippine Supreme Court. As reported by the latest Pulse Asia survey, the Chief Justice apparently has a lower trust rating than the Vice-President, President, Senate President, and House Speaker (in that order). Amongst judicial offices, the Supreme Court itself has a lower trust rating (this time according to a 2022 SWS survey) than the Public Attorney’s Office.
Instead, we’re referring to the present US Supreme Court, particularly of Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney-Barrett. That Court already perhaps laid claim to the distinction of promulgating the greatest ruling ever made by a tribunal: Dobbs vs. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, the case that — not to put a too fine point to it, killed Roe vs. Wade.
The first blow for sanity came with Students for Fair Admissions vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College, where the US Supreme Court finally buried race-based college admissions standards. Ostensibly a policy for “equity,” such has been used by elitist “progressive” universities like Harvard to prop up the black student population but at the expense of Caucasian and Asian student applicants.
Rebuffing the lame dissent of affirmative action hire Ketanji Brown Jackson, the majority correctly declared that such affirmative action policies violate the 14th Amendment. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” Justice Thomas was even more succinct: “The Constitution continues to embody a simple truth: Two discriminatory wrongs cannot make a right.”
Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Mike Gonzales lays out the twisted logic of affirmative action: “The view that disparities, in educational attainment and elsewhere, are prima facie evidence of something called ‘systemic racism’ — another idea virtually signaled without factual support — stands behind this idea of getting a quick fix on results. It runs counter to the actual data. For example, 52% of US-born Venezuelan Americans have at least graduated from a four-year university, a much higher rate than the 23.5% of all Americans. Other ‘Latinos,’ a victim category according to the theories peddled by those who have pushed for racial preferences, also have high levels of educational attainment. Better evidence yet comes from Nigerian Americans. At least one study shows that 73.5% of US-born Nigerian Americans are college graduates. That is compared to 32.9% of US whites.”
The solution? The traditional family: “We should now pivot to considering the effects of family formation. Family intactness is closely correlated to good life outcomes. Nigerian Americans have rates of family intactness that are nearly equal to that of whites. Let’s go back to teaching the success sequence (graduate, get a job, get married, have a baby — in that order) in schools and all areas of life.”
This was then followed by the case of Biden vs. Nebraska, where the Supreme Court struck down US President Joe Biden’s plan to “forgive” the debt of 43 million students that would have cost US taxpayers more than $400 billion. While it would be great to point out that the principle upheld was a simple “stand by your commitments,” unfortunately the reason was more technically prosaic: “The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it,” again Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority. In other words, the Executive Branch doesn’t have the power to effect changes in rules, with such wide-ranging consequences at that, if such goes beyond — contravenes even — the authority delegated to it by Congress.
Finally, the US Supreme Court ruled on 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis, whereby the state of Colorado tried to compel a Christian computer graphic artist to build website celebrating same-sex marriages. This case should be read alongside the non-stop persecution of another Christian, Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who refused to make wedding cakes for same-sex marriages.
The US Supreme Court ruled that building a website is a creative work and thus a form of constitutionally protected speech. No discrimination is also said to be condoned here as no person was refused service simply for being LGBT, the actual issue rather being whether a person could be forced to act against his/her religious beliefs.
And thus, for the second year, the present US Supreme Court (by its rulings of profound significance) consolidated its reputation as being the best ever.
Jemy Gatdula is a senior fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence
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