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Dear Progressive Reader,

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered several decisions this past week that further chop away at gains made over the past decades. In a 6 to 3 decision on a pair of cases brought by ([link removed]) a group called Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., founded by ([link removed]) conservative activist Edward Blum, the Court ruled that affirmative action could no longer be used in college admissions. However, as a 2020 study ([link removed]) in California clearly shows, removing “race-based affirmative action” makes college admission anything but fair. In fact, as an amicus brief ([link removed]) in the
case noted, after the State of California stopped the practice in 1998, it “caused a huge drop in diversity at top California universities.” As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted ([link removed]) in her dissent, “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”

Another case ([link removed]) halted President Joe Biden’s forgiveness of student loan debt; Biden has already promised ([link removed]) to try again. And in another decision ([link removed]) , the Court majority ruled that a website designer does not have to design websites for gay weddings—even though no one had yet requested that she do so. According to ([link removed].) the nonprofit newsroom The 19th, this decision could have “massive implications for LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections and other civil rights laws, as legal experts say those policies are now vulnerable to reinterpretation by courts.” As our legal writer Bill Blum declared
([link removed]) in The Progressive a year ago following the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, “The U.S. Supreme Court has entered a legal fantasy world: advancing a regressive political agenda free from democratic accountability.”

In one positive sign, Mike Ervin points to a decision where “the Court got it right,” but, he reminds us ([link removed]) , “the dissenters were Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito . . . nothing is too boneheaded for those two.” And cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates ([link removed]) the way Justice Alito has now joined Thomas in infamy as the two rack up points with billionaire donors who have had cases before the Court by accepting gifts in violation of judicial ethics. As Alito said ([link removed]) in his defense, he thought it would be okay to accept a vacation in a private jet, since “[the] seat, as far as I can tell, would otherwise have been vacant.”

Also this week on our website, Jeff Abbott reports ([link removed]) on the huge costs anticipated by the nations of Central America from climate change, and some actions that could be taken to help mitigate these. Frank Smyth writes about ([link removed]) the 100th anniversary of the NRA’s signature publication and how the organization has been attempting to bury and rewrite its own history. Corey Schmidt examines ([link removed]) the effects that removing AM radios from cars could have on immigrant and rural communities. And Katie Brimm pens an op-ed ([link removed]) on how “young farmers should be our beacon of hope to avoid another Dust Bowl, capture carbon, and feed our
population. But,” she continues, “we have set them up to fail.”

In two weeks, Jeff Bryant, lead fellow ([link removed]) of our Public Schools Advocate project, will lead a workshop ([link removed]) on “the politics of school choice” at the annual NetrootsNation ([link removed]) conference. Billed as one of the largest national gatherings of grassroots activists, progressive politicians, and independent media makers, this year’s events will take place July 13-15 in Chicago, Illinois. I hope you can join us there!
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Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - The 2023 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now on sale for half price. You can still order one online ([link removed]) .

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