During his confirmation before the United States Senate, John Roberts compared the role of a Supreme Court justice to that of a baseball umpire. “My role is to call balls and strikes and not to throw or hit,” he said before adding: “I have no program. » It is clear that this is not the way Americans judge the performance of the President of the Supreme Court and his colleagues. According to an AP/NORC poll, 70 percent believe that justices on America’s highest court are more likely to be guided by their own ideology than to serve as neutral arbiters of government authority.
I am writing this post after the Supreme Court announced four other decisions, none of which concern the one that many Americans have been waiting for weeks to decide: whether Donald Trump can claim criminal immunity in the post-election conspiracy case he is facing trial in Washington. It is as if the pitcher were to throw and the umpire were to go around the world before deciding whether it was a ball or a strike.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority temporarily blocked a Biden administration measure that would force states to reduce air pollution from their borders that affects their neighbors. It also reduced the power of the SEC, Wall Street’s police force, to fine financial fraudsters.
Different permutations of conservative and progressive judges are responsible for the other two rulings, one of which blocks the deal protecting the Purdue lab and the Sackler family from future lawsuits (in exchange for at least $6 billion to combat the drug crisis). opiates). The other temporarily allows emergency abortions when a woman’s life is in danger in Idaho, a decision that was leaked Wednesday.
In short, sometimes judges get along beyond their labels. But can we blame the Americans for doubting their impartiality?
(Photo AP)
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