Supreme Court rulings make life harder for so many Americans: Color Us Connected

This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. This week, Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Alabama, and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write about recent Supreme Court decisions.

By Guy Trammell Jr.

In 1885, George W. Carver applied by mail to Highland Presbyterian College in Kansas. He was accepted. However, upon arrival he was rejected — for being Black. He later graduated from Simpson College, earned a master's degree, and changed the world. If you use soy milk or almond milk, thank Carver, who pioneered the science of synthetics.

Affirmative action made predominantly white colleges accessible to minorities for decades. However, it was recently struck down by the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision, notably excluding military academies. There, race-conscious admissions policies have been protected for 20 years because the military, whose members are about 20% Black, needs a diverse officer corps in order to have a stronger overall force.

Edward Blum, a conservative legal strategist, gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013 with Shelby v Holder, but that same year failed to stop affirmative action with Fisher v. University of Texas. He then formed Students for Fair Admissions, with Abigail Fisher and her father as leaders, claiming Harvard University’s affirmative action discriminated against her for being white. Most Asian Americans support affirmative action, but Blum included them in the case and recruited some as “members.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her dissent on the ruling, pointed out that “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”

The ruling supports soldiers, not scholars or CEOs. This is white supremacy at its finest!

In Allen v Milligan, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 that intent does not negate effect. Therefore, the Alabama redistricting map is illegal because it prevents two Black majority voting districts. A new map must be completed this month.

A 6-3 ruling in Moore v Harper stopped a move to inject the "independent state legislature theory" into American life. This “theory” would give state legislatures ultimate authority over the governor, state constitutions and courts. Elections could be decided by the legislature, not by popular vote, based on Article 1 of the Constitution: “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof.”

In his ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: Legislatures, the Framers recognized, “are the mere creatures of State Constitutions, and cannot be greater than their creators.”

In 1812, the term "gerrymandering” was first used in reference to the law redrawing Massachusetts’ senate districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry. In 1957, Alabama state Sen. Sam Engelhardt authored a bill to reduce Tuskegee’s city limits by about 50%, eliminating all but a handful of Black registered voters. The Legislature unanimously supported it. When Black voters resisted and the Supreme Court ruled against it, Engelhardt had the state legislature approve a statewide vote to dissolve Macon County, where Tuskegee is located.

This demonstrates what happens when a legislature acts with no checks or balances.

By Amy Miller

The Supreme Court this summer made a boatload of decisions with wide-ranging ramifications.

I am not an historian of the Supreme Court nor a legal scholar with the wherewithal to analyze the legal nuances of the decisions. But what I can understand clearly is the effect these laws have on people, in many cases people I know. And what I see is that the individuals affected by each decision were those who already have uphill battles, battles that not all Americans face.

Black people trying to better themselves. Gay people wanting to celebrate love. Students buried under crushing loans. What strikes me, then, is not the legal questions, but the lack of human empathy.

Legal experts can debate the legal validity of these decisions, but it is inevitable that the interpretations of the arguments they hear will follow a justice’s predispositions. So what, we can ask, gives these judges a predisposition to want to make life harder for so many people. Perhaps as interesting as the judicial justifications for their opinions is their lack of empathy for those who will suffer even more because of these decisions.Since its start, our nation has shone brightest when it sought to make life just and good for the most people. Yes, it has faced some profound failures since the start, and at times it has reached temporarily backwards while still pursuing that long arc of moral history that bends towards justice, as the Rev. King said.

So what we have is a court that sided with a Colorado web designer who wanted clearance in advance to deny wedding services to same-sex couples. It matters little to the law, but much to those who can be turned away by a business, that the web designer did not in fact have a same-sex client, but a strong interest in establishing her rights.

The court also struck down using race as a factor for elite university admissions. It  apparently matters little to the law that preferences continue for children of alumni and children of big donors, but much to the students of color who still face well-documented barriers to achievements each step of the way.

And finally, the court ruled that President Biden overreached his authority when he offered loan forgiveness to students. As with affirmative action, the public sentiment is fairly even on this question.

So while we are debating the legal intricacies that Supreme Court justices proffer to validate their point of view, maybe we could stop and think about those people whose days just got worse, if not upended, because the Supreme Court of the our country said they didn’t deserve the nation's support.

Amy and Guy can be reached at colorusconnected@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: Supreme Court rulings make life harder for many Americans