Within just two days this week, the Supreme Court delivered a series of major victories to American liberalism.
Despite being a conservative institution headed by an appointee of President George W. Bush, the court shifted the legal winds toward the left with its rulings.
As Americans start thinking about who should be the next president, the Supreme Court protected an older liberal program, legitimated a recent liberal accomplishment, and inscribed a new civil right across the land.
If liberalism is a dirty word, this Supreme Court surprisingly didn’t hear the news. When historians look back at what happened in 2015, they will point to these pivotal decisions as a turning point.
Protecting liberalism: In the decision that received the least attention of the batch, the Supreme Court validated a broad interpretation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. This had been the third pillar in Lyndon Johnson’s trifecta of civil rights legislation. The fight over this bill had been brutal, helping to stimulate a white backlash against the Great Society. The final measure had been a severely watered down version of the original proposal. Nonetheless, the Fair Housing Act was significant in that it gave the imprimatur of the federal government to the claim that discrimination in housing was illegitimate.
By a vote of 5 to 4, the Supreme Court has now ruled that discrimination does not have to be intentional for the government to take action. According to this robust reading of the law, if the effect of policies such as zoning laws are discriminatory, that is enough to be a problem.
Recent research has shown clearly the importance for children of growing up in strong and vibrant communities. The government now has an opportunity to implement this older law more aggressively to ensure that younger African Americans have access to the neighborhoods that offer the best path toward advancement.
Entrenching liberalism: In King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court declared that the federal health insurance subsidies being given to Americans who purchased their insurance in states with federal health care exchanges was constitutional. Proponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had been terrified about a negative ruling since it would have raised costs to millions and driven healthy citizens out of the exchanges. This was one of the greatest threats to the future of Obamacare.
With this ruling, the Supreme Court has entrenched the ACA (for the second time) to the consternation of conservatives. Many Republicans have been up in arms, lashing out against Chief Justice John Roberts for having betrayed, what in their minds, was his mission on the Court.
But Roberts is clear about where he stands, as he explained that Congress intended to “improve health insurance markets, not destroy them.” Although some Republicans are still planning to challenge ACA through the budget process, few have any realistic expectations that they will win. ACA is the law of the land. One of the biggest expansions of the federal government in decades will stand.
Inscribing new liberal rights: In response to another striking decision, President Obama tweeted out #LoveWins.
Justice, the President said, “arrived like a thunderbolt” when the Supreme Court declared in Obergefell v. Hodges that Americans had a right to same sex marriage. This is the culmination of a revolution in social norms that has taken hold extremely quickly over the past decade. Popular attitudes about gay marriage and political support for same sex marriage has rapidly and dramatically increased throughout the nation, in states that are red and blue.
While the nation has already made dramatic progress on this civil rights issue, the Supreme Court’s putting its authority behind this right is a huge step. The decision gives same-sex marriage the kind of constitutional legitimacy that nothing else can and the Court’s decision will accelerate progress in the remaining states that have not yet taken action.
The court decisions support other developments in American politics that have energized liberalism. Polls have shown that Americans are moving in a liberal direction on issues like inequality. In particular, millennials, the next generation of leaders, are prone to stand leftward on most of the big social and cultural issues.
Liberals should still not be sanguine. They shouldn’t go too far in thinking that the nation is all of a sudden trending to the left. Liberals were just dealt a huge blow on a trade deal that threatens American workers.
The government has barely made progress on tackling the growing divide between the rich and poor, and the horrible shootings in Charleston are a reminder of how far we still have to go in dealing with race. Tea party Republicans continue to exert enormous power in the House and the Senate.
But after several years of watching Democrats get beat up by the GOP in Congress, today liberals have reason to rejoice. During his interview on Marc Maron’s podcast “WTF,” President Obama said that he learned “the trajectory of progress always happens in fits and starts.”
This was a good week for fits and starts, and the news came from a political institution that is not a natural ally. Liberals walk away with their policy agenda in much stronger and better shape than it was when the week began.