Intersection. Reigning Supreme

• Author: Liane Jackson
• Pages: 24-25

INTERSECTION

Reigning Supreme

A tipped scale has unbalanced our ‘coequal’ branches of government

BY LIANE JACKSON

Intersection is

a column that

explores issues of

race, gender and law

across America’s

criminal and social

justice landscape.

In the 232-year history of the

United States Supreme Court, 115

justices have been appointed.

Of those 115, two were Black.

One was Hispanic.

Five have been women. Zero were

Black women.

It’s not a stellar history of diversity,

to say the least, and there have been

only marginal inroads to change this

fact since Thurgood Marshall was ap-

pointed in 1967.

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination

as the rst Black woman to serve on the

high court is historic and aspirational.

But Jackson replaces retiring Justice Ste-

phen G. Breyer, and the court will retain

its lopsided 6-3 conservative superma-

jority as it prepares to hear cases on

topics as divisive as afrmative action

and gun control. The lack of balance on

the court has made nding consensus in

the middle challenging, and its rulings

are frequently out of step with over-

whelming popular opinion.

Judge, jury, executioner

As the nation’s corrosive politics has

metastasized, no branch of government

has been immune from the dysfunction

and partisanship. The Supreme Court is

no exception, and that once-venerated

institution seems largely to have become

a place where democracy goes to die.

I previously wrote about conser-

vatives recognizing early on that the

Supreme Court was the brass ring in

our “coequal” branches of government

that, once controlled, could be weapon-

ized. This prescience has been transfor-

mative: In recent years, it’s become clear

that an unelected nine-person delibera-

tive body is wielding an outsize amount

of power over Congress, the president

and the American people.

Court observers worry about an

increasing rule by at, evidenced by the

edited by

LIANE JACKSON

liane.jackson@americanbar.org

ABA JOURNAL | APRIL–MAY 2022

24

Inter Alia

Photo by Callie Lipkin/ABA Journal; Illustration by Sara Wadford/ABA Journal