EFE
Washington
The Supreme Court of the United States begins this Monday a new judicial cycle in which its members, with a conservative majority, must rule on key issues in terms of discrimination, equality or voting rights.
Its latest member, the progressive Ketanji Brown Jackson, was invested last Friday after having made history in June by becoming the first African-American judge of the highest US judicial instance, although her appointment does not change the balance of forces of the court .
With three progressive justices, all of them women, and six Republicans, the Supreme Court is leaning more to the right than at any time since the 1930s.
Una mayoría conservadora que le permitió revocar en junio la protección del derecho al aborto vigente desde 1973, permitiendo a cada estado fijar sus propias leyes al respecto y desatando una oleada de indignación en parte del país.
Este nuevo año judicial comienza con una confianza ciudadana en esa institución en mínimos históricos: el instituto demoscópico Gallum publicó el pasado jueves que el 58 % de estadounidenses no aprobaba su actuación, el porcentaje más alto desde el año 2000, cuando la firma planteó por primera vez esa pregunta.
La reanudación de las vistas orales empieza este lunes con una cuestión de materia medioambiental que podría afectar el alcance de la regulación federal de los humedales.
En el caso del matrimonio Sackett contra la Agencia de Protección Ambiental (EPA, por sus siglas en inglés), se determinará si la EPA tiene autoridad para intervenir en el terreno de esa pareja que lleva años peleando contra ella para construir una casa en un solar a 100 metros del lago Priest.
Tuesday will be about the Voting Rights Act, which has protected the right to vote for African-Americans and minorities for nearly 60 years and could have significant consequences for the conduct of federal elections.
With the cases Merrill v. Milligan and Merrill v. Harper, he will address the redistricting of electoral districts in the southern states of Alabama and North Carolina.
The most extreme interpretation of the law could imply that no state court or agency can interfere with state election regulations, leading opponents to fear a complete lack of oversight.
On its agenda for this new cycle, with 27 cases on the table, there are also issues related to the rights of the LGTBQ community or immigration policies.
And among others, one, the Creative v. Elenis, which still has no set date but which, according to The New York Times, will take that court to the battlefield of the cultural war, deciding whether a business open to the public can refuse to offer its services to potential clients on the basis of religion or other belief.
The implications of the issues contemplated lead us to expect a controversial season.
“The court has always decided on controversial cases and its decisions have always been subject to intense criticism, and that is totally appropriate,” the president of the Supreme Court, the conservative John Roberts, said in September in statements collected by The New York Times.
Posted on September 29, 2022
