Affirmative Action. 'John Roberts, Worst Chief Justice Since Roger Taney' - Robert Reich
'Why I still think John Roberts is the worst Chief Justice since Roger Taney. And why I testified against him in 2005.' Robert Reich, 11.4.22. - Ed.
On Monday, the Supreme Court gathered to consider whether affirmative action in college admissions nourishes a multicultural nation or impermissibly divides Americans by race.
I do not expect this Court to uphold affirmative action, notwithstanding the clear precedent for doing so.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- the conservative least likely to champion dramatic change in the court’s precedents -- has for his entire legal career opposed what he has called the “sordid business” of dividing Americans by race, including affirmative action. As Special Asst. to the Attorney General in the Reagan Justice Dept., Roberts argued that affirmative action was bound to fail because it required the "recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates." He also complained that the Dept. of Labor & its Office of Federal Contract Compliance were promoting "offensive preferences" based on race & gender, and questioned the exec. order on which the Office of Contract Compliance was based.
He criticized a Supreme Court decision barring states from eliminating public education for children of undocumented immigrants.
He supported a narrow "program specific" interpretation of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Later, in the White House he sought to slow progress against housing discrimination, arguing that the admin. should "go slowly" on proposed fair housing legislation, claiming that it represented "government intrusion."
Compared to the Trump justices, Roberts seems almost judicious. But on the issue of affirmative action and on several other key issues he’s as bad if not worse than his rightwing siblings on the Court.
Since Roberts became Chief on Sept. 29, 2005, the Court has done more to reduce the voting rights of poor people & Black people while enlarging the voting rights of rich people & corporations than has any court since Roger Taney was Chief Justice in the early 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney
In 2010, Roberts was the moving force behind “Citizens United v. FEC,” finding that corporations are people, entitled to the same 1st Amendment rights — and thereby opening the floodgates to big money corrupting American politics. In 2013, he wrote for the court’s conservative majority in “Shelby County v. Holder,” gutting the Voting Rights Act’s (VRA) requirement of prior federal approval for voting changes in states with a history of discrimination. He ignored the detailed record to make his own finding that racial discrimination was no longer a problem in the U.S. — opening floodgates to voter-suppression laws across the South & other states with GOP - majority legislatures.
In addition to affirmative action, this term the Roberts court will put at risk the Voting Rights Act’s bar on the “denial or abridgement” of the right to vote on account of race in the upcoming case of “Merrill v. Milligan,” where Alabama asserts that race can’t be used as a factor to design fairer voting districts. ** The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is supposed to guard it as an institution — maintaining public confidence & trust in it.** But Americans' confidence in the Court is now at a new low in Gallup's nearly 50-year trend. Only 25 % of U.S. adults say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in it — 5 % lower than the previous low recorded in 2014.
- Yet another reason why it is so important that Democrats keep control over the Senate.
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Here’s my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005, in which I opposed Roberts’ Senate confirmation.
- Senate Judiciary Committee, September 15, 2005... - Read More, https://robertreich.substack.com/p/my-senate-testimony-against-confirming
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- Roger Brooke Taney, (March 17, 1777 – Oct. 12, 1864), 5th chief justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. Taney infamously delivered the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), ruling that African Americans could not be considered U.S. citizens & that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the U.S. territories. Prior to joining the U.S. Supreme Court, Taney served as the U.S. Attorney General & U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson. He was the first Catholic to serve on the Supreme Court...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney
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