Asked for my reaction to the recent decisions made by the SCOTUS, namely:
(1) affirmative actions based on race (2) web designer free speech issue re: LBGTQ & (3) student loans, this is what I think.
My current respect for the SCOTUS is low. Their recent decisions reek of partisan politics. Once upon a time I considered it a vaunted institution with gravitas until it entered the political arena, accepted and decided the Bush v Gore election which was strictly a state matter.
IMO, it's now a failing institution, populated by liars, morphed into another grubby political entity, guarantied a lifetime of supreme rights and privilege without ethical standards and no checks and balances. From that position, it cannot rule with credibility. Moreover, fewer and fewer of its decisions appear more and more rooted in closely held personal views, thinly disguised as ponderous legal decisions.
So, you tell me, what opinions could I offer about decisions made under a political cloud? In principal, I think none of them have much merit based on the people passing the judgements.
OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system: let's take them one at a time.
Free Speech: The aggrieved web designer who decided she didn't have to provide her creative services to a same sex couple. This case should have been rejected because it had no standing.
There was no gay couple, there was no request from anyone for a website that included LBGTQ information, the person named in the suit is a heterosexual man with a wife.
In other words, the decision was based on lies; it was a problem made up of whole cloth by a conservative political group using cutouts. That's why I would throw it out.
But my own opinion is that a business open to the public should serve the public otherwise we will return to a country peppered with signage like "No blacks allowed" or "No Jews here". By its decision the SCOTUS simply created a new exception: “No gays will be served”.
Student Loan Forgiveness. If the executive branch didn't use the proper tool/law/regulation to order the forgiveness as an executive matter, then it should be rejected, as it was. But as an aside, I think it's a travesty for graduating students to begin their adult life behind a financial eight ball.
Affirmative Action: Quotas of any kind should go away. There are other means to separate the best cows from the herd without resorting to special treatment. But, as it is, this was a half-assed decision based on personal politics, ignoring legacy students, privileged high school athletes, children of wealth who are regularly admitted based on generous parental contributions to a stadium, building, auditorium or departmental chair.
So these are my thoughts & reactions to the current spate of judgements passed down from a crumbling Mount Olympus.
