The Supreme Court’s judicial activism will deepen cracks in America

I t was hardly a surprise. The Supreme Court’s move to overturn Roe v Wade, the decision in 1973 that guaranteed American women’s constitutional right to abortion, had been expected since a draft majority opinion was leaked in early May. And drama from the court was almost inevitable after Donald Trump seated three justices, giving it a 6-3 conservative supermajority instead of the 5-4 balance, with a swing vote in the middle, that had prevailed since the 1970s. Even so, when the ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation came on June 24th, it was a shattering blow to those, like this newspaper, who believe in the right to abortion. Chief Justice John Roberts, who cautioned against a “dramatic step”, could not prevent the court from withdrawing a right Americans had relied on for nearly half a century and which a majority of them have consistently supported.

The ruling is the most striking of the court’s decisions in its current term, but abortion is not the only area where it has radically tipped the scales. The justices have also loosened gun laws and eroded the separation of church and state. If their final big verdict goes as expected, they are about to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate emissions from power plants, undermining the Biden administration’s hopes of halving climate-changing carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030. Just 25% of Americans have confidence in the court, an all-time low, according to recent Gallup polling. That has not deterred the justices from embarking on a spree of judicial activism that will further deepen cracks in America.

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