The Supreme Court just finished their fifth term under Chief Justice John Roberts. What's the verdict?
In those five years, the court not only moved to the right but also became the most conservative one in living memory, based on an analysis of four sets of political science data....If the Roberts court continues on the course suggested by its first five years, it is likely to allow a greater role for religion in public life, to permit more participation by unions and corporations in elections and to elaborate further on the scope of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. Abortion rights are likely to be curtailed, as are affirmative action and protections for people accused of crimes.
Read the full story in The New York Times.
The Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a United Church of Christ minister, prophetically warned of this in 2005 when she testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee against Roberts' nomination:
John Roberts holds a very limited view of the Constitutional protection of religious liberty and an exceptionally permissive view of religious establishment. John Roberts sees a very small arena for the protection of the individual from tyranny including a rejection of a fundamental right to privacy and a very expansive view of the role of presidential power and law enforcement authority. In short, John Roberts’ views seem not to reflect the deep and broad promise of the Constitution, but to risk, in fact permit the very tyranny over the individual’s freedoms that the framers who wrote the Constitution most feared.It will take a generation (or more depending on future nominations to the court) to undo the damage this court is doing to the common good of our nation.
