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Graphic featuring protesters behind the scales of justice, reading ''The Rush: Bolder Action Now: Fill Every Seat'' [[link removed]]

This week served as a stark reminder of just how badly things have gone awry at our nation’s highest court. The extreme far-right majority finished off this year’s term by further eroding our most basic rights—denying equal justice under the law in astonishingly explicit terms and uprooting established precedent to push their partisan agenda.

First, on Thursday, in a profound blow to equality in higher education, the Supreme Court ruled that Harvard and the University of North Carolina can no longer rely on affirmative action to promote racial diversity in admissions. The conservative justices confounded logic in their decisions—arguing that the 14th Amendment, which was ratified to address the discrimination faced by Black Americans post-slavery, must be interpreted in a colorblind fashion.

Want to know more about Thursday’s ruling? Read AFJ’s statement on the Court’s affirmative action decision [[link removed]] and listen to this recording of AFJ’s latest signature Holding Court event [[link removed]] with AFT’s Randi Weingarten and NEA’s Becky Pringle, moderated by AFJ President Rakim H.D. Brooks.

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Today, the Supreme Court delivered more extremist and unfounded results. First, in 303 Creative [[link removed]] , the Court catered to Americans asking the justices to create a right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in public accommodations, delivering an illogical opinion that ignores decades of precedent. This decision evokes the Jim Crow era, weaponizing the First Amendment as a pretext to allow businesses to refuse service to people who belong to protected classes on that basis. Then, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts , the Court blocked [[link removed]] President Biden’s plan to provide student loan borrowers making less than $250,000 with up to $20,000 in debt relief. Put simply, many Americans are at least $10,000 poorer today than they were yesterday. Both cases were decided 6-3, with
Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting strongly.
In these final days of the Term, Roberts’ Supreme Court has given us a stark reminder of just how much courts matter—and why it is that public trust in the Court is at a historic low [[link removed]] . It is critical that our federal bench be composed of reasonable jurists committed to the rule of law and justice for all—at all levels. The only thing that illustrates the crisis at the Court more compellingly than its outrageous, partisan decisions is its failure to address growing evidence of corruption jeopardizing the legitimacy of the Court altogether.

The Good News
To repair the credibility of our federal courts, the Senate can and must confirm experienced, professional, and diverse judges to the bench. Last week, the Senate confirmed [[link removed]] Julie Rikelman to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Nominated back on August 1, 2022, Judge Rikelman [[link removed]] was confirmed by a vote of 53-45. A champion of equal justice and reproductive freedom, Judge Rikelman is best known for advocating on behalf of Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the abortion clinic at the heart of Dobbs . Prior to joining the bench, she served as Senior Litigation Director for the Center for Reproductive Rights. She is the first Jewish woman and first female immigrant to serve on the First Circuit. Read our report [[link removed]] on Judge Rikelman to learn more about the personal and professional experience she brings to the bench.
Congress also marked a milestone with the confirmation of Natasha Merle to the Eastern District of New York. The Senate has now confirmed 100 of the Biden administration’s district court nominees—meaning we have confirmed 136 judges to the federal bench since January 2021. That is more than any other administration save one had confirmed at this point in a first term. A fitting nominee for this historic milestone, Judge Merle is a civil rights champion who has dedicated most of her legal career to public interest law and public defense. Read more about her background here [[link removed]] .

What's Next
The Supreme Court has made it clear that blatant ethical violations and unfounded disregard for decades of precedent won’t stop the conservative majority from pushing an extremist agenda on our democracy. We must answer these injustices with a stronger federal bench dedicated to equal justice under law. That’s why, as the Senate breaks for the July 4th recess, AFJ, its members, and partners are redoubling efforts to see the federal bench transformed into a judiciary that reflects America’s diversity in everything from background to experience to thought. This summer, we will continue to call for the confirmation of nominees who have dedicated their careers to justice and civil rights.
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