A Fractious, And Fractured, Term At The Supreme Court
From the National Law Journal
It was a U.S. Supreme Court term for the history books, with a final week that will be remembered for its powerful — and to some, contradictory — rulings on equality.
During the term that began last October, the court made headlines with decisions on issues ranging from gene patenting to drug-sniffing dogs. But it was the final week that updated the story line of the Roberts Court — a divided group of justices that takes on society's biggest issues without hesitation, even if the resulting opinions are sometimes fractious and fractured.
During its last sitting on June 26, the court issued two rulings that were viewed as major advances for same-sex marriage: U.S. v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry.
But the day before, in Shelby County v. Holder, it delivered a body blow to the Voting Rights Act, crippling the mechanism used to require certain jurisdictions to obtain approval beforehand for election changes from the Justice Department. And the day before that, the court decided cases in ways that will make it harder for employees to prove discrimination in the workplace (Vance v. Ball State University and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar) and harder for universities to justify affirmative action programs (Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.)
"The [Defense of Marriage Act] case will go down in history as a watershed moment for gay rights," said Carolyn Shapiro, director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent College of Law. "But when it came to racial and gender equality, there was a very different perspective from the court — a belief that people who complain about discrimination are making mountains out of molehills."
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the National Law Journal
It was a U.S. Supreme Court term for the history books, with a final week that will be remembered for its powerful — and to some, contradictory — rulings on equality.
During the term that began last October, the court made headlines with decisions on issues ranging from gene patenting to drug-sniffing dogs. But it was the final week that updated the story line of the Roberts Court — a divided group of justices that takes on society's biggest issues without hesitation, even if the resulting opinions are sometimes fractious and fractured.
During its last sitting on June 26, the court issued two rulings that were viewed as major advances for same-sex marriage: U.S. v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry.
But the day before, in Shelby County v. Holder, it delivered a body blow to the Voting Rights Act, crippling the mechanism used to require certain jurisdictions to obtain approval beforehand for election changes from the Justice Department. And the day before that, the court decided cases in ways that will make it harder for employees to prove discrimination in the workplace (Vance v. Ball State University and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar) and harder for universities to justify affirmative action programs (Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.)
"The [Defense of Marriage Act] case will go down in history as a watershed moment for gay rights," said Carolyn Shapiro, director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent College of Law. "But when it came to racial and gender equality, there was a very different perspective from the court — a belief that people who complain about discrimination are making mountains out of molehills."
Read more in our daily News Update...