Hi friends,

I’m Alexa Barrett, Take Back the Court’s new press secretary. I’m writing today with something new for you — something I hope can be a useful resource for sifting through the never-ending media clamor to determine your must-reads and highlight key info in the national conversation about the Supreme Court.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by news hitting you from all directions, let this be your one-stop-shop for all things SCOTUS.

Two weeks ago we saw President Biden name an historic and incredibly talented new Supreme Court nominee. Last week the Court heard arguments in a potentially catastrophic climate case. And in the weeks ahead, the Court’s docket is stacked to the brim with cases that will give the far-right justices plenty of opportunities to threaten and strip away our fundamental rights.

There’s no better time to keep your eyes on the Court.

Court Chatter

The Supreme Court Is Even More Conservative Than You Think

In Brief: A new analysis by Take Back the Court shows that the stolen right-wing majority on the Court is stacking the docket to advance its right-wing agenda. The analysis shows that a whopping 77% — more than three-quarters — of cases with clear ideological lines had the potential to move the law in a conservative direction, while less than a quarter (23%) had the potential to move the law to the left.

Key Point: “By taking an outsized number of cases that can only move the law in a conservative direction, they’re creating many opportunities for themselves to do so, and they’re also shaping the narrative and the way that cases are understood when they don’t choose the most conservative radical option on the table.” – Sarah Lipton-Lubet

The Other First: What it means to nominate a veteran public defender.

“Jackson served as a federal public defender for only two and a half years, but that’s more experience than any current or past member of the Supreme Court has had — ironic given that the Court in 1963’s Gideon v. Wainwright declared that “lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries,” requiring states to provide attorneys to those who can’t afford them.

The first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court will be extraordinary, but she can’t save the Supreme Court

“Representation is important, but it is not enough when the institution that the first Black female justice is entering is broken. If we are to see the fullness of this historic moment, we must fight for a Supreme Court that works for us all. The presence of a Black female justice cannot fix the structural issues facing our court. Only Supreme Court expansion can do that.”

SCOTUS Just Blew Up the Voting Rights Act’s Ban on Racial Gerrymandering

“The court’s intervention in Merrill v. Milligan was so radically unjustified that Chief Justice John Roberts—an architect of the judicial attack on voting rights—dissented, alongside the three liberals. … Indeed, by interceding so aggressively in Merrill, these far-right justices have effectively nullified this guarantee for the current redistricting cycle.”

On the Docket

West Virginia v. EPA — what’s it all about?

• We partnered with Sunrise Movement to break down the latest potential landmark Supreme Court case: Who brought the suit (Republicans and their coal industry allies), what’s in question (the country’s most sacred environmental laws), and what’s on the line (just about everything). Check out the primer here >>

• Members of Congress spoke up ahead of arguments for WV v. EPA, and their message was clear: If we want to protect the climate, we have to expand the Court. See what Sens. Markey, Smith, and Warren and Rep. Escobar had to say!

The right-wing Court is stacking the docket

• Over the last year alone, the stolen conservative Court majority has gutted the Voting Rights Act, effectively outlawed abortion in Texas, blocked President Biden’s eviction moratorium, reinstated Donald Trump’s cruel and inhumane ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, curtailed workers’ rights to organize, and invited arguments to overturn Roe and obliterate state and local gun safety regulations.
  
  How did they do it? In part because the justices choose which cases the Court takes up. Read our study to learn how the Court’s conservative majority is stacking the docket with cases to push their radical and harmful agenda >>

Hearsay

Let the hypocrisy begin! Just like clockwork, right-wing lawmakers like Senator Lindsey Graham have begun launching unfounded attacks on Biden’s new imminently qualified and supremely talented Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

But Graham seems to conveniently forget his own history: Not even a year ago, Graham himself voted to confirm Judge Jackson to her judgeship on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. And his apparent concern for Jackson’s Harvard University credentials ring hollow following his votes for Jackson’s fellow Harvard alums, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts.

If you enjoyed our first edition of Full Court Press, I hope you’ll consider chipping in to support our work to expand the Supreme Court to put power back where it belongs – with the people.