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 a group called Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., founded by conservative activist Edward Blum, the Court ruled that affirmative action could no longer be used in college admissions. However, as a 2020 study in California clearly shows, removing “race-based affirmative action” makes college admission anything but fair. In fact, as an amicus brief 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 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 halted President Joe Biden’s forgiveness of student loan debt; Biden has already promised to try again. And in another decision, 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 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 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, “the dissenters were Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito . . . nothing is too boneheaded for those two.” And cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates 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 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 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 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 the effects that removing AM radios from cars could have on immigrant and rural communities. And Katie Brimm pens an op-ed 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 of our Public Schools Advocate project, will lead a workshop on “the politics of school choice” at the annual NetrootsNation 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!


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.

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