After abortion, conservative US justices take aim at other precedents
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
January 29, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
After abortion, conservative US justices take aim at other precedents

USA

Reuters
01 July, 2022, 04:55 pm
Last modified: 01 July, 2022, 04:59 pm

Related News

  • US Supreme Court report fails to identify abortion ruling leak culprit
  • US Supreme Court lets New York enforce new gun restrictions
  • Maternal deaths rising due to low awareness about medication abortion: Survey
  • US Supreme Court lets Meta's WhatsApp pursue 'Pegasus' spyware suit
  • Court: Abortion doctors can’t be charged under Arizona law

After abortion, conservative US justices take aim at other precedents

Reuters
01 July, 2022, 04:55 pm
Last modified: 01 July, 2022, 04:59 pm
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S. July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S. July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

The US Supreme Court's conservative majority has shown in its blockbuster abortion ruling and other high-profile decisions in recent days that it is fearless when it comes to overturning - and even ignoring - historic precedents.

And the conservative justices, with a 6-3 majority, may just be getting started, even as their current term came to a close on Thursday.

Among the cases the court already has taken up for its next term, starting in October, are two that give its conservative bloc an opportunity to end college and university policies considering race in admissions to achieve more student diversity - an approach the court upheld in a 2003 precedent and reaffirmed in 2016. Another case in the coming term involving federal protections for waterways will put a further precedent to the test.

The court in a flurry of recent rulings has overturned or undermined its own decades-old precedents.

"I think the most conservative justices dislike much of modern American law and are actively changing it. They aren't going to let precedent get in their way," University of Virginia Law School professor Douglas Laycock said.

The conservative justices have become increasingly assertive since the addition of former President Donald Trump's third conservative appointee Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. Democratic President Joe Biden's appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, sworn in to replace retiring fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer on Thursday, does not change the court's ideological balance.

In the abortion ruling, called Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the procedure nationwide, as well as one from 1992 that reaffirmed it. The conservative majority also consigned to oblivion rulings from 2016 and 2020 that struck down Republican-backed state abortion restrictions.

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas has been forthright about his willingness to ditch Supreme Court precedent.

"When faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it," Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion in a 2019 case.

That Thomas opinion focused on "stare decisis," a Latin term referring to the legal principle that courts should not overturn precedents without a special reason. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito seemed to take the same view in the June 24 abortion ruling, writing that the Roe landmark was "egregiously wrong."

Thomas in the abortion case caused considerable alarm on the left by writing in his concurring opinion that the court should consider overturning other precedents protecting individual freedoms including the 2015 ruling that legalized gay marriage, the 2003 ruling that ended state bans on same-sex intimacy and the 1965 decision that protected access to birth control.

RELIGIOUS RIGHTS
In a June 27 religious rights ruling, the court took a slightly different approach to precedent when it further narrowed the separation of church and state in a decision in favor of a public high school football coach who was suspended by the local school district for leading prayers on the field with players after games.

The court effectively overruled a 1971 precedent that had outlined how to determine if a government has violated what is called the "establishment clause" of the US Constitution's First Amendment, which prohibits governmental endorsement of religion, although it did not explicitly say so.

Instead, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the court "long ago abandoned" the prior ruling and subsequent decisions that had built upon it. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion that nothing in the court's previous cases "support this court's decision to dismiss that precedent entirely."

David Gans, a lawyer at the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center, said the court did not appear to want to acknowledge a "sea change" in the law.

"It's very flippant," Gans added.

Conservatives have long complained about affirmative action policies used by many colleges and universities to increase their numbers of Black and Hispanic students. The cases the court will hear involve Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

The court also will consider limiting the scope of a landmark federal environmental law that regulates waterways in a case in which the challengers have asked the court to reconsider a 2006 precedent.

Among other major cases next term, the court will hear an appeal by North Carolina Republicans that could give state legislatures far more power over federal elections by limiting the ability of state courts to review their actions.

Another case could further weaken the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act enacted to protect Black and other minority voters in a dispute over Republican-drawn US House of Representatives districts in Alabama.

The court throughout its history has occasionally explicitly overturned its precedents, starting in 1810 when it threw out a ruling from just two years earlier, according to a federal government database that lists 234 such cases.

In recent years, the court was most willing to overturn precedent in 2019, when it did so four times.

The court has found over time "lots of ways to evade, distinguish or overrule precedent," Laycock said, adding that a liberal majority likely would do the same thing.

World+Biz

US Supreme Court / Abortion / Abortion law / US Abortion Law

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Getting gas to India will be even more costly than laying this pipe to China.Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
    Russia can't replace the energy market Putin broke
  • Ex-MD Mehmood Hossain rejoining National Bank
    Ex-MD Mehmood Hossain rejoining National Bank
  • Photo: UNB
    AL won't run away, rather will continue developing Bangladesh: PM in Rajshahi

MOST VIEWED

  • Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he attends a rally in Warren, Michigan, U.S., October 1, 2022. REUTERS/Chery Dieu-Nalio/File Photo
    Trump warns 2024 election 'our one shot' to save America
  • Photo: Collected
    Police say 3 dead, 4 hurt in latest California shooting
  • People hold signs during a protest following the release of videos showing Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols, who died while hospitalized three days later, in New York, U.S., January 28, 2023. REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
    Memphis disbands police unit after fatal beating as protests continue
  • Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop unveiling his leadership team, while standing next to US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina, US, January 28, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
    Trump kicks off campaign with low-key events in New Hampshire, South Carolina
  • Crew members signal to a F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet preparing to take off for a routine flight on board the US USS Nimitz aircraft carrier during a routine deployment to the South China Sea, Mid-Sea, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Joseph Campbell/File Photo
    US four-star general warns of war with China in 2025
  • FILE PHOTO: Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Florence Regional Airport in Florence, South Carolina, US, March 12, 2022. REUTERS/Randall Hill/File Photo
    Trump heads to New Hampshire, South Carolina in bid to jump-start campaign

Related News

  • US Supreme Court report fails to identify abortion ruling leak culprit
  • US Supreme Court lets New York enforce new gun restrictions
  • Maternal deaths rising due to low awareness about medication abortion: Survey
  • US Supreme Court lets Meta's WhatsApp pursue 'Pegasus' spyware suit
  • Court: Abortion doctors can’t be charged under Arizona law

Features

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

8h | Mode
Illustration: TBS

'The silver lining is that the worst is sort of behind us': Hamid Rashid, UN economist

11h | Panorama
Photo: Bloomberg

BuzzFeed and AI are a match made in fad city

10h | Panorama
Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

1h | TBS Entertainment
Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

2h | TBS SPORTS
“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

4h | TBS Round Table
What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

1d | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

3
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

4
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

5
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net