Supreme Court has it right, or wrong?
It’s not as if the United States Supreme Court has not been the No. 1 topic in the national political conversation at other moments in our time after a bombshell decision or two.
Mandatory busing to achieve school desegregation? Check.
Banning prayer in the public classroom? That one had a lot of people yakking.
But it’s safe to say that a spate of four recent Supreme Court rulings by a conservative court supermajority has Americans abuzz about the legal power being exercised in Washington, D.C., and we are all talking about it at an exceedingly loud volume.
Has the Supreme Court got it right this time, finally, or is this an overreaching court dramatically in need of reform?
That’s our Question of the Week for readers.
The 6-3 votes in question: overturning Roe v. Wade, thus eliminating the nationwide right to abortion; expanding the rights of gun owners to carry concealed firearms in public; strengthening the role of religion in public life; sharply cutting back the Biden administration’s power to combat climate change by reducing the carbon output of power plants.
Do you agree with all four rulings? Disagree with all? Come down somewhere in the middle?
Many on the right who think the Supremes have been on an untoward statist roll since the Franklin Roosevelt administration are ecstatic, saying that finally a truly strict constructionist reading of the Constitution is the court’s legal standard, and especially that states’ rights are being respected. Are you among them?
Many liberals are outraged, saying that the court has gone rogue and even that “we are in a full-blown constitutional crisis.” Some of them want to “unstack the court” by expanding its membership beyond nine members. President Biden now says he favors changing the Senate filibuster rules to codify Roe. Are those good ideas?
Are the rulings just an inevitable political pendulum swing? Or are we indeed in a crisis that demands reform?
Email your thoughts to opinion@scng.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Provide a daytime phone number (it will not be published).