If You Missed Parts 1 and 2 of this diary that I posted only a couple of days ago, here are the links.
Recent decisions by the US Supreme Court have resulted in some of the best and most poignant editorial cartoons in the past few months. By and large, most cartoonists depict the Roberts Court as an extension of Rightwing political forces, contemptful of legal precedent and as you can read below in my opening comment, hellbent on tearing the fabric of society.
I’ll post more cartoons in the comment section and as updates to the diary. The manual updates will appear at the end of this diary just above the diary poll. Thanks for supporting this diary.
Until a couple of years ago, David Fitzsimmons was the long-time editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star. This is his Facebook page where you can see his articles and cartoons.
You can read his latest, excellent article “The Supreme Court And Our Supreme Duty to America” on his substack. It is a scathing indictment of the Rightward drift of the court.
Making Things Worse
Added 11:50 pm
Tearing Down Society
Diversity reflects a confident society. Attribution: Rhode Island College
Of late, the Supreme Court of the United States has (literally) been on a tear. Tearing down well-established laws that have attempted to prevent vast disparities of income and wealth in American society. Ramming through decisions that tear the carefully-knitted fabric we call society and one that has evolved over generations. In short, reversing individual rights that many Americans had grown up with and come to take as guaranteed.
That era of fragile certainty and predictability was dealt a severe blow this past week by the Roberts Court. Trying to replicate what was lost with Affirmative Action being reversed is not only very difficult but darn near impossible. As an article in the Washington Post described it, "many of the options are challenging, controversial and maddeningly indirect."
Attribution: David Wayne Simmons, Arizona’s Progressive Voice.
An article in Mother Jones magazine makes a persuasive case that the court’s actions will not only result in fewer educational opportunities for minorities but a significant widening of the income and wealth gap. As is often the case with the Roberts Court, most decisions penalize minorities the most. What have they done to deserve its wrath?
With these actions, the court seems to be saying that society has progressed enough and that people from different races have more or less equal access to everything. That may appear so from the relative comfort and detachment of suburbia but anyone who lives in a large metropolitan area knows that is far from the truth.
What the court doesn’t realize is that diversity is not just a desired societal goal but absolutely essential to the vibrant health of a confident democracy — particularly one in which minorities have played a major role in its development.
The Supreme Court Made It Even Harder to Close the Racial Wealth Gap
The result of two major decisions: fewer opportunities and ever more debt.
Within 24 hours, two rulings from the nation’s highest court—one striking down the use of race-conscious college admissions, and the second gutting Biden’s student debt cancellation plan—rolled back years of progress towards greater economic justice and educational opportunity for students of color.
In these rulings, the Supreme Court has all but ensured the deepening of racial wealth inequality by undoing the chance to erase debt held disproportionately by Black Americans, and also decreasing access for students of color to elite US colleges—and the financial opportunity they can offer their graduates…
The Supreme Court had the chance to preserve two tools that could offer a path forward on this persistent problem, and a greater chance to equalize educational opportunity and financial security for all. Instead, the court’s conservatives chose neither—opting, instead, to uphold the myth that society is already equal enough.
Clarence Thomas to the Rescue
Our Rights Are Disappearing Daily
That Was Then, This Is Now
Attribution for the above cartoon: Steve Benson @stevebenson_az
Open to the Highest Bidder
Answer: No!
The Future is Now
The Glorius American Past the Roberts Court Loves So Much
You’ve Done Enough This Past Week
Honey Do List
John Roberts: I Just Don’t See It
Will the Court Survive This Stench?
It Sure Does!
And a Happy July 4th to You, Too!
Well… Yes!
The Truth
We’ll Do As We Feel Like It
Good Luck!
Makes No Sense
Moving Backwards
The Roberts Court is Not Immune from Temptation
Diary Poll
I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July.
Updates
The Extreme Court of the United States
The Reality for Most Minorities in America
Nothing to Worry About
An Awful Week
So Long, Affirmative Action
Not Even Close
The Dissent from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Court Packing
I Just Make My Own Rules
Self-Made Americans
“It’s His Fault!”