In the last few months, Anthony Kennedy and the rest of the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court revealed how far they are willing to go to hurt working people and rule in favor of billionaire extremists using their outside influence to rig the courts. They dealt a significant blow to people coming together in union in their ruling in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31. They validated discrimination against the LGBTQ community while paradoxically upholding the Trump Muslim ban. They defended a racial gerrymander in Texas and refused to strike down a partisan gerrymander in Wisconsin.
We acknowledge the value of the decision Justice Kennedy penned to ensure marriage equality in the United States and his occasional votes for women’s reproductive rights, fairer housing laws, and a more equal criminal justice system. While an independent voice on the high court is important, fundamentally the next Supreme Court justice must have experience advocating for working people.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed prominent labor lawyer Arthur Goldberg to the Supreme Court. Since Goldberg left the bench, the Supreme Court has had far too few champions for working people. Since then union membership has declined from nearly a third of the U.S. workforce to a little more than 10 percent now. Janus is just the latest Supreme Court case contributing to policies and laws chipping away at men and women’s ability to stick together in strong unions.
It is time for a justice to be appointed who will interpret the Constitution and U.S. laws in a way that is fair to working people and allows them to negotiate collectively. Jobs With Justice will oppose any nominee that is in the pocket of corporate CEOs rather than supporting the working people’s right to a level playing field.
