US Supreme Court steers society sharp right

WASHINGTON - One year after

its ruling to erase abortion rights,

the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has underscored its determination to push society sharply to the right by scrapping long-established progressive polices.

In three emphatic rulings this week the court

banned universities from giving minorities priority

in admissions; said some business owners can refuse to serve gay couples on religious grounds; and struck down

President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student debt

.

Each saw the court’s six conservative justices under Chief Justice John Roberts flexing their biceps over its three liberals.

Republicans cheered them on as major victories were scored against flagship progressive ideologies – as was also the case in last year’s landmark overturning of abortion rights.

“I have never been prouder of Roberts Court. The Supreme Court is truly standing up for individual constitutional rights and limited government,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham declared on Friday.

While Mr Biden, a Democrat, was outraged by the rulings.

“This is not a normal court,” he said after the ruling on affirmative action in university admissions.

Victory for religious liberty?

A day after the court’s affirmative action ruling, on Friday it ruled that a Colorado graphic designer was in her rights to refuse to design a website for a same-sex couple due to her Christian beliefs.

The court rooted its decision in the US Constitution’s guarantee of free speech, saying she could not be forced to create products that effectively forced her to say things she did not agree with.

The decision focused on a limited category of commercial activities, like artists or businesses those creating content, but added to the accumulating decisions by the court in favour of religious Americans projecting their beliefs onto society at large.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley called it a “major victory for free speech and religious liberty.”

For critics, it was a shocking erosion of anti-discrimination laws, opening the door for business owners generally to discriminate against customers who don’t fit their moral or social belief set.

“Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” wrote Ms Sonia Sotomayor, a justice on the court’s liberal wing.

Ms Sarah Kate Ellis, the chief executive of the LGBTQ lobby GLAAD, said the decision would “bring harm and stigma” to her community.

The ruling “is yet another example of a Court that is out of touch with the supermajority of Americans,” she said.

Student debt relief

In Friday’s second case, the court overruled Mr Biden’s programme to cancel more than US$400 billion (S$540 billion) worth of student debt weighing down the lives of millions of lower and middle-income Americans.

The court majority said that given the large sum, Mr Biden had overstepped his powers.

“The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it,” Justice Roberts wrote, sounding sympathetic to the president’s motives.

Republicans hailed the court siding with their stance that there was no justification for what they considered a politically motivated programme.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell called it the “student loan socialism plan” which he said would “pad the pockets” of Mr Biden’s rich supporters.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray riposted that Mr Biden “gave working and middle class borrowers some breathing room with desperately-needed debt relief.

“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has once again slammed the breaks on critical progress for people across Washington state and our country.” AFP