Equal Justice Under The Law

The words above the Supreme Court read, “Equal Justice Under the Law.” This week, two Supreme Court outcomes dramatically affected the reality of those words.

On Tuesday, in a 5-4 decision, a key component of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 was struck down, jeopardizing equal justice under the law especially for black, Hispanic, and low-income people whose voting rights have historically been assaulted and have continued to be suppressed as recently as the 2012 election. In fact, Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act — which required parts of the country that have been especially egregious in racially motivated voter suppression to get federal approval of any changes in their voting laws — was specifically used in the 2012 election to prevent new voter suppression. That provision has now been struck down, and efforts to increase barriers to voting are already underway in several states, especially in the South, that would suppress the future votes of Americans of color, especially those with lower incomes.

Equal justice under the law lost on Tuesday, June 25. The Supreme Court’s decision was morally shameful.

On the wrong side of the argument were Justices Thomas, Scalia, Alito, Kennedy, and Chief Justice Roberts, with Roberts writing the majority opinion — appropriate, given his many years fighting against the Voting Rights Act. The decision revealed how politically partisan this bench has unfortunately become. In the past, Republicans have supported voting rights, and a bipartisan Congress has affirmed the Voting Rights Act several times. But the conservative justices have aligned themselves with the extreme right-wing politics that have taken over today’s Republican Party — one that has deliberately encouraged and practiced voter suppression against minorities, low-income people, the young, and the elderly.

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