Day: July 1, 2023

The US Supreme Court issued some interesting rulings.

First, they limited the ability of state legislatures to overturn, say, a Presidential vote, though they did leave state legislatures with plenty of power to conduct said votes. So, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then came the big three rulings.

Affirmative action: they ruled that North Carolina and Harvard could not use race as a factor in college admissions. In terms of the educational impact: well, some of the potential work-arounds might also face court scrutiny. Reactions to the ruling were mixed.

I think it is important to keep in mind that this really only affects a statistical handful of schools (Ivy league, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, flagship public universities). And the public seems to support the ruling.

If I were a Democrat politician running a national race, I might back off of this issue.

Gay rights: this one was weird. This ruling came from a hypothetical situation: would a maker of websites be compelled to make a website for a gay marriage if they were to make marriage websites? This was in Colorado, where they have sexual orientation as a protected characteristic.

The bottom line appears to be: the right to not be compelled to make certain types of speech won out over the right for a protected class not to be discriminated against.

This is a tricky line to walk. Sure, under Colorado law, a gay customer could not be refused service because he was gay, provided, say, the customer wanted a math website.

But here is my hypothetical: what if it was a interracial couple’s wedding and the website maker had a religious objection to mixed marriages?

Hmmm

Student loan program The Supreme Court ruled that President Biden needed Congressional approval to forgive student loans. I don’t know enough about the law to comment, but, politically, I note that 36 percent of the public are college graduates and wonder how much of an issue this would be politically.

My summary of SCOTUS rulings:

1. This shows that elections matter. Those howling about these decisions who did NOT vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 have no sympathy from me.
2. I think that the overturing of Roe v. Wade was a big deal and the Democrats can make political hay out of that. But these decisions: one was good news, and I am somewhat ambivalent the other 3. I wonder how far reaching they are.

I just wish that the campaign people would ignore many of the so-called “activists” here. Much of the discussion I’ve seen on social media is dreadfully bad.

Billionaires: commentary.

Billionaires can buy Supreme Court justices. They can buy sports teams. They can buy politicians and buy universities.

But they cannot buy exemptions to the laws of nature.

BUT…there is a saying…”those who pay the bills make the rules” and the “rich benefactor” (here courted by Mr. Love, the Nutty Professor’s alter ego) will always be catered to. (yes, I am well aware the technical terms in this clip are nonsense and the gluteus minimus is one of the 3 glute muscles..I known because mine frequently aches.