Normally, attention on the Supreme Court peaks in June, when the biggest decisions of the term are generally released. But this year, despite a paucity of rulings, people are already paying close attention. Eyes are on the court long before the big decisions — which will include rulings in cases on race conscious admissions in higher education, student loan forgiveness, immigration, the First Amendment and civil rights laws, voting rights, and more.
The early scrutiny is of the court’s own making — through several years of questionable, and often partisan, actions. Many decisions from the court over that time, in its cases and otherwise, strongly reinforce the idea that Americans have a responsibility to treat — and, for journalists, to cover — the Supreme Court and justices no differently and no less skeptically than we would treat any other government body.
It’s important to always remember that the Supreme Court, in actuality, is the chief justice and associate justices. Everything that the Supreme Court, as an institution, does is what they decide it should do, within congressional and constitutional limits.
The early scrutiny is of the court’s own making — through several years of questionable, and often partisan, actions.
Throughout recent years, one constant issue has been about recusal. Supreme Court justices and dozens of lower federal court judges have failed to recuse themselves from cases with financial conflicts of interest. And Justice Clarence Thomas voted in cases related to the 2020 election, including a case involving the Jan. 6 insurrection, even though his wife, Ginni Thomas, supported efforts to overturn that election. Most recently, questions were also raised — though of a less anti-democracy nature — about Chief Justice John Roberts’s wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, and money that she has been paid as a legal recruiter for firms with cases before the court.
There has also been substantial reporting about a right-wing…
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