Supreme Court

SCOTUS Overturns ‘Chevron’ Deference, Massive Transfer Of Power To Courts

June 30, 2024 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Educate! Chevron, Chevron Deference, Corporatism, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Health Care, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Supreme Court ruled along ideological lines on Friday to overturn a 40-year-old doctrine known as Chevron deference in a seismic decision that could see a major erosion of federal administrative rule in issues of public health, labor rights, environmental protection, food safety, and more. The Court ruled 6 to 3 in a pair of decisions that hands a massive amount of control over federal regulatory powers to the courts, overturning the doctrine that allowed federal agencies to have interpretive authority when there was any ambiguity in a law. Chevron deference allowed experts at federal agencies — as people better situated to make decisions on issues within their regulatory purview — to interpret statutes rather than judges.

Two Years Since Abortion Rights Were Overturned In The United States

June 25, 2024 People's Dispatch. Educate! Abortion Rights, Democratic Party, Feminism, Joe Biden, Supreme Court, Women's Rights

On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned protections for abortion rights nationwide, giving the green-light for states run by ultra-conservative politicians to implement draconian abortion bans. As a result, millions of women, concentrated in the poorest regions of the country, saw their reproductive rights taken away from them—systematically denied abortion even of cases of medical necessity or rape. The US Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization sparked a nationwide movement for abortion rights, spearheaded by major feminist and left-wing organizations as well as working people pouring into the streets.

Supreme Court Decision In Starbucks Case Will Impact Labor Movement

June 21, 2024 Alexandra Martinez, Scheer Post. Educate! National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Starbucks, Supreme Court, Unions, Worjer Rights

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 13 in favor of the Starbucks Corporation in the landmark case Starbucks v. McKinney, a devastating blow to union organizers that narrows the authority of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to seek remedies for terminated union activists. The case, which marked a significant victory for Starbucks and could hinder future labor organizing, centered on whether the NLRB should have the authority to swiftly issue injunctions under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act aimed at halting employers’ alleged unfair labor practices. “The main reason we submitted the brief was so that the Supreme Court could hear directly from the Starbucks workers who are affected by issues that the court was considering,” said Daniel Rosenthal.

Safe Abortions Everywhere, Regardless Of The Law

June 11, 2024 Naomi Braine, In These Times. Create! Abortion Rights, Abortions, Global South, health, Supreme Court, Women's Rights

In 2008 in Quito, high in the Andes Mountains, a group of young feminist activists dropped a banner from the top of an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that towers over Ecuador’s capital city. “Aborto Seguro,” the banner read, alongside the number for a new hotline that offered callers information on safely using medication to end a pregnancy outside the medical system. In a country where abortion access is extremely restricted and the majority of the population is Catholic, the Ecuadorian “safe abortion hotline” was a bold declaration of women’s bodily autonomy. It was also the beginning of what has since become a transnational movement that is increasingly relevant far beyond the region where it was born.

How A New Supreme Court Decision Threatens Movements In Mississippi

May 24, 2024 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Mississippi, Right to Protest, State Repression, Supreme Court

As local and state governments across the country continue to propose sweeping new policies that criminalize protests, a recent Supreme Court decision in the Deep South has sparked fears that it “effectively eliminated the right to organize a mass protest” in multiple states — setting a dangerous precedent for Southern organizers and activists. Back in 2016, prominent Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay McKesson led a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where an unidentified protester seriously injured a police officer. The officer sued him, arguing that McKesson displayed negligence as an organizer.

When You’re Unsheltered, ‘Public Safety’ Doesn’t Include You

April 24, 2024 Dionicia Roberson, Next City. Educate! Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights, Philadelphia, Police, Public safety, Supreme Court

I’m going to tell you something you already know: Every human being is entitled to a roof over their head and a place to sleep at night. This is an indisputable truth, part of the catechism of humanistic virtue. In a world that lived up to its self-professed ideals of opportunity, any condition of homelessness would be rare, brief and non-recurring. The reality is cultural attitudes toward impoverished people – fueled by toxic portrayals, fear mongering in the media and systematic dehumanization – have made homelessness not a community problem to be solved, but an individual offense to be punished, and defines those who suffer this condition as enemies to the idyllic peace of ‘good (read: housed and well-fed) people’.

SCOTUS Is Set To Make A Watershed Ruling On Homelessness

April 14, 2024 Mandy Chapman Semple and Nathaniel Fields, Next City. Create! Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights, Supreme Court

This month, the Supreme Court will begin to hear one of the highest-profile court cases about homelessness in generations. City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson considers whether a local government can outlaw sleeping outside if adequate shelter is not accessible. If the Court sides with Grants Pass, cities will be able to rely on punitive policies that do little to nothing to decrease homelessness and often cause worse outcomes for unhoused people in the process. If it favors Johnson, local governments will be required to demonstrate adequate shelter is available for an individual before resorting to harsh enforcement tactics.

India’s Supreme Court Expands ‘Right To Life’ To Include Climate Change

April 10, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! climate crisis, Human Rights, India, Supreme Court

In another landmark climate decision, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that an individual’s “right to life” includes protection against the impacts of climate change. The verdict reflects fundamental rights stated in Article 21 of the country’s constitution, reported The Independent. “Without a clean environment which is stable and unimpacted by the vagaries of climate change, the right to life is not fully realised,” the decision of the court said. “The right to health (which is a part of the right to life under Article 21) is impacted due to factors such as air pollution, shifts in vector-borne diseases, rising temperatures, droughts, shortages in food supplies due to crop failure, storms, and flooding.”

An Upcoming Supreme Court Case Threatens To Criminalize Homelessness

February 1, 2024 Adam Mahoney, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Class Struggle, Criminalization, Homelessness, Housing, Supreme Court

As America’s affordable housing crisis grows, especially for those of retirement age, Black folks continue to be pushed into homelessness at a disproportionate rate. Advocates argue that an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling may make it even more dire. Earlier this month, the court announced that it would hear a case that will essentially decide if people experiencing homelessness can be issued jail time, tickets, and fines for sleeping on the streets — even if there are no shelter alternatives available for them. The case will be heard either this spring or in the fall.

Win For LGBTQ+ Youth, Supreme Court Rejects ‘Conversion Therapy’ Case

December 12, 2023 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. Educate! Conversion Therapy, LGBTQ, LGBTQ Rights, Supreme Court, Transgender Rights, Victory, Youth

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a lawsuit challenging Washington state's ban on the harmful practice of so-called "conversion therapy" for minors, a move welcomed by LGBTQ+ rights advocates. The nation's highest court rejected an appeal from Washington, where the 2018 law prohibiting therapists from attempting to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity has been upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Although right-wing Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas dissented, their votes fell one shy of the four needed to get the case on the court's shortlist for full review.

Chipping Away At The Right To Strike

October 9, 2023 Veena Dubal, Dissent Magazine. Educate! Labor Movement, Strikes, Supreme Court, Worker Rights

On June 1, the Supreme Court issued a significant decision against the labor movement in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters Local Union No. 174. In an 8–1 split, the Court found that the National Labor Relations Act does not protect striking cement truck drivers from being sued by their employer, who alleges damages for lost cement caused by their work stoppage. The decision, perhaps by design, has received little public outcry. Some in labor, who had anticipated a worse outcome, even expressed relief. On June 1, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry tweeted, “We are pleased that today’s decision . . . doesn’t change labor law and leaves the right to strike intact.”

Right-Dominated Supreme Court Is Poised To Do Grave Harm

October 2, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. Educate! Deregulation, Gerrymandering, Right-Wing, Supreme Court

The 2023-2024 Supreme Court term will begin on Monday, October 2. Dominated by six right-wingers, the court has agreed to review cases in which voting rights, consumer protection, and the regulation of health and safety, workers’ rights and the environment are in jeopardy. The cases present the issues of gerrymandering and the power of administrative agencies. In light of its recent conservative rulings, we should be wary about how the court will rule on these critical matters. Besides the cases already on the Supreme Court’s docket, the court will add more cases by mid-January. Their decisions will be issued by the end of June or beginning of July 2024.

Construction Companies Exploit Agricultural Visas To Underpay Workers

September 22, 2023 Sky Chadde and Ryan Murphy, In These Times. Educate! Immigrant Rights, Migrant Workers, Supreme Court, Visas, Worker Rights and Jobs

Jose Ageo Luna Vanegas first worked for Signet Builders in the early 2000s. Hired on a temporary labor visa, he traveled from Mexico to U.S. job sites. The hours were long, but he was paid overtime. Years later, around 2017, Signet hired him again. This time, he received no overtime pay. That’s when he “started asking questions,” his attorney, Jennifer Zimmermann, said. The work was largely the same. His visa was different. Originally, Luna Vanegas was hired on an H-2B visa. Various industries use the visas to fill labor shortages. A hotel facing a busy summer might hire foreign maids, for instance. But, when Signet hired him for his second stint with the company, he was on an H-2A visa. It’s reserved for agriculture work.

Mexico’s Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationally

September 11, 2023 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. Resist! Abortion, Abortion Rights, Feminism, Mexico, Reproductive Rights, Supreme Court, Victory, Women's Rights

On Wednesday, September 6, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) unanimously ruled to decriminalize abortion at the national level. The SCJN resolved that the legal system that criminalizes abortion in the Federal Penal Code is unconstitutional as it violates the human rights of women and people with capacity for pregnancy. The ruling came two years after the SCJN first declared criminal penalties for abortion as unconstitutional and ordered the northern State of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code in September 2021. The ruling was in response to a case filed in 2018 challenging a criminal law in the Coahuila State legislation that punished women and pregnant individuals for terminating their pregnancy.

Juvenile Sentencing In The US Is Barbaric, Racist, And Ineffective

August 15, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Human Rights, Juvenile detention, Legal System, Racism, Supreme Court

“The United States is the only country in the world that permits youth to be sentenced to life without parole,” the Juvenile Law Center notes. “Sentencing children to die in prison is condemned by international law. For children or adults, a sentence of life without parole is cruel, inhumane, and denies the individual’s humanity. For children, the sentence also defies law and research confirming that youth are different than adults and must be treated differently by our legal system.” While many individual states have banned the practice of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole, 22 states still permit it, and the conservative majority of the US Supreme Court has shown a troubling openness to overturning past precedents regarding juvenile sentencing.

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