The Supreme Court Has Always Been a Reactionary Body
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning the right to abortion is the latest in a long history of reactionary rulings. We shouldn’t have any illusions: the court is an antidemocratic body that has always been about protecting elites.
The US Supreme Court in Washington DC. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
Fifty years after Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson has overturned the right to abortion. The decision follows decades of the Right taking control of the Supreme Court, the expansion of the prison industrial complex, and the failure of the center-left to fight back. But the conservative shift in our institutions should not come as a surprise; the Supreme Court and the Constitution were founded to protect the rights of the elite minority from the popular majority.
Jacobin spoke with legal scholars Aziz Rana and Amna A. Akbar and Movement for Black Lives lawyer Marbre Stahly-Butts about why the liberal veneration of law without politics has failed us. You can listen to the episode here. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Daniel Denvir
Sam Moyn recently told Jacobin, “In the end, [we’ll] have to read [Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s] legacy through the bet she made on her own longevity, while leaving others to deal with the consequences.” Does Ginsburg’s refusal to exit the Supreme Court during the Obama administration, and the opportunity this provided Trump to fill her open seat with a right-winger, reveal that liberals have become victims of their own veneration of the Supreme Court?
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