Supreme Court now legislating for America

The egos of the conservative members of the Supreme Court have now taken hold - they now consider themselves both the legislative and judicial branches of government. They tossed key provisions of the Voticing Rights Act, not because they were unconstitutional, but because 5 members felt they were no longer relevant.

From The Atlantic
(Click on the link to read more)
 Garrett Epps Jun 25 2013

The 'Hubris' of the Supreme Court's Voting Rights Ruling

Five of the nine justices negate a half-century of successful bipartisan self-government on the grounds that they could have done a better job.

"Hubris is a fit word for today's demolition of the [Voting Rights Act]," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent from the 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, announced Monday. 

She nailed it.

The decision invalidated the requirement of "preclearance" of voting changes by states and jurisdictions with particularly bad records of racial discrimination. (My colleague Andrew Cohen looks at the practical effect of this decision on voting rights.)  But beyond that, it illustrates the absolute contempt that the Supreme Court's conservative majority harbors toward what is, after all, the central branch of our federal government: Congress, elected by the people and charged with exercising "all legislative powers" granted by the Constitution. 

A brief reading of the Constitution reveals how seriously the Framers took the idea of congressional centrality.  An even briefer glance at the Fifteenth Amendment shows that the Framers of that measure trusted Congress, not courts, with setting national policy against racial discrimination in voting. 

Not this Court, which Monday invalidated Section Four of the Voting Rights Act -- not on the grounds that it hasn't worked; not even on the grounds that it won't work; but on the grounds that the Court didn't think Congress did as good a job as it could have.