Evaluate the view that the US Supreme Court is a political body rather than a judicial body.

Key facts

replacement of Anthony Kennedy

Brett Kavanaugh 2018

Appointment of Amy Coney Barrett when

2020

Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation 2022 overturned what

Roe v Wade 1973

what decision rejected affirmative action based on conservative alignment

Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard 2023

George H W Bush appointment of

David Souter in 1990

Eisenhower’s appointment of

Earl Warren in 1953

Chief Justice Roberts sided with liberal justice on what case

NFIB v Sebelius 2012 which upheld the Affordable Care Act

Department of Homeland Security v Regents of the University of California 2020, which blocked the termination of DACA, prioritising institutional legitimacy over ideological loyalty.  

several conservative justices supported a ruling that extended workplaces protections to LGBTQ employees, based on their interpretation of the law’s wording- what ruling

Bostock v Clayton County 2020

ome liberal justices accepted limits on federal power when considering the Affordable Care Act.-which case

NFIB v Sebelius 2012

Through judicial review, the court can uphold, remove or redefine policy, often with consequences comparable to those of congress or the president.  
Landmark ruling example

Roe v Wade 1973 and Obergefell v Hodges 2015 illustrates how the court has reshaped national policy on abortion and same sex marriage.

Obergefell -what case explain

the state bans were invalidated across all fifty states, demonstrating the court’s capacity to transform social policy in a single judgement.

Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation 2022

fundamentally altered abortion policy by removing national right and returning the issue to the state.  

Brown v Board of Education 1954

reshaped civil rights policy nationwide despite originating as a judicial ruling.  

it doesn’t initiate policy change but responds to constitutional challenges brought before it.  
in Dobbs 2022

the majority justified its decision in terms of constitutional limits and federalism rather than ideological preferences. 

Haaland v Brackeen 2023

upheld the Indian child Welfare Act by a wide majority, demonstrating restraint and respect for congressional authority.  

Trump v Hawaii 2018

deferred to presidential discretion in matters of national security.  

Bush v Gore 2000

court intervened directly in the presidential election, splitting largely along conservative and liberal lines and producing an immediate political outcome.

Moore v Harper 2023

rejection of the independent state legislature theory was accompanied by strong disagreements among justices about the court’s role in election law.  

Rucho v Common Clause 2019

the court’s decision to withdraw from partisan gerrymandering cases allowed politically significant practices to continue without judicial oversight.-political impact of judicial restraint

More than nine out of ten cases include at least one liberal justice in the majority

suggesting that legal reasoning frequently outweighs ideological alignment

Biden v Nebraska 2023

voting patterns didn’t fall neatly along partisan lines, indicating that constitutional interpretation can override partisan loyalty.  

McKesson v Doe (2020)

declined to hear the case while reinforcing existing free speech precedent 

FDA v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine 2024

unanimously rejected a challenge to mifepristone on procedural grounds.