Black conservative Clarence Thomas’ improbable rise as a powerful US Supreme Court justice today was unimaginable during his controversial confirmation hearings in 1991.
Affirmative action, discrimination against LGBTQ people and election laws are some of the hot-button issues that the Supreme Court will tackle this fall.
Major Supreme Court decisions and reversals last term are leaving some people, including this scholar on constitutional politics, wondering – what’s going on with the court?
As long as the justice system relies on only retaining people who can afford to progress within the legal profession, racial and gender inequality will persist within its ranks.
In 1972, justices handed down a decision that attacked discriminatory and capricious death sentences. But it left the door ajar for states to continue the practice.
Lauren Ralph, University of California, San Francisco
The fall of Roe v. Wade will result in more people deciding to privately end a pregnancy, a new study finds. But how often people will turn to safe versus unsafe options remains to be seen.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned its back on America’s core constitutional ideals — liberty and equality— when it erroneously ruled women have no constitutional right to abortion.
Why do government policies sometimes fail to reflect the public will? The answer begins with the design of the US government system, forged in the 18th century.
Primary care doctors have long played an important role in providing birth control. Now, with the fall of Roe, they could help fill a critical need for comprehensive family planning services.
Kate W. Isaacs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
When ideological enemies talk across their great divides, something good can happen – it reduces stereotypes and inflammatory language directed at people who don’t agree on the abortion rights issue.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted for a bill that would federally protect same-sex marriage – and 47 Republicans signed on, too. Same-sex marriage isn’t the partisan issue it once was.
Lower federal court judges follow a formal code of ethics, but this does not apply to Supreme Court justices, leaving potential conflicts of interest unchecked.