Tag

#Supreme-Court

Incidents involving the U.S. Supreme Court, including defiance of its rulings, attempts to undermine its authority, conflicts between executive action and judicial review, and constitutional crises involving the court.

4 incidents

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

DACA Rescission: Ending Protection for 800,000 Childhood Arrivals

DACA recipients — sometimes called Dreamers — had arrived in the United States as children, had lived here for years or decades, had submitted to background checks, and had registered with the government in reliance on the Obama administration's promise of temporary protection. Sessions announced the rescission by describing immigrants in terms that critics said echoed nativist rhetoric. The administration's stated legal basis was that DACA was an unconstitutional executive overreach; the Supreme Court did not reach this question, instead finding the rescission procedurally defective — the DHS Secretary had failed to adequately explain the agency's reasoning as required by the APA.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Travel Ban Expansions: From Muslim Ban to Permanent Entry Restrictions

The travel ban evolved through three executive orders as earlier versions were blocked by courts for discriminatory purpose and due process violations. The third version added non-Muslim-majority countries to provide legal cover, and was upheld by the Supreme Court 5-4 in June 2018. The Court's majority assumed it could look behind the proclamation but applied only deferential rational-basis review, under which the national-security justification sufficed despite Trump's public statements calling for a Muslim ban; Sotomayor's dissent quoted those statements at length and compared the ruling to Korematsu v. United States.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Judicial Appointments: Packing Courts with Ideological Judges Who Lied at Confirmation

The Trump-McConnell judicial project placed 226 federal judges and three Supreme Court justices — the highest court transformation since Reagan. Kavanaugh was confirmed in a process widely criticized for inadequate FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations. Barrett was confirmed after McConnell refused to hold hearings for Merrick Garland for 293 days, then confirmed Barrett in 27 days. Justices Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Gorsuch all joined the Dobbs v. Jackson majority overturning Roe; Kavanaugh had called Roe 'settled as a precedent' at his hearing.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Travel Ban: Muslim-Majority Country Restrictions Through Three Iterations

The travel ban's anti-Muslim intent was documented in Trump's own public statements: before the first order, Trump had called for 'a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States'; Rudy Giuliani publicly stated Trump had asked him how to create 'a Muslim ban' legally. The first order's implementation — without agency coordination, applying immediately to green card holders, causing chaos and hundreds of detentions at airports — forced a broad injunction within hours. Courts repeatedly found discriminatory intent. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the third version, with Chief Justice Roberts's majority explicitly declining to assess whether the stated national security justification was pretextual.