The Supreme Court, the Law, and Ideology

I won’t attempt echo the assessments of distinguished legal experts set forth in major media outlets yesterday and today concerning the ruling, accompanied by an unsigned opinion, three justices dissenting, of the Supreme Court Tuesday night compelling the Biden administration to revive Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. A good example is the article in today’s Slate by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern under the heading “The Supreme Court has let a lone Trump judge take over Biden’s foreign policy.” The circumstances and history of this matter are complex and this is not the place for another account of them. I’ll simply say that this decision reveals unequivocally that all six “conservative” (i.e. right-wing) justices of the Supreme Court are driven not by their dedication to law and precedent, but by a deeply held, and in my view deeply perverse, ideology. It’s a decision that bodes ill for the future of American democracy.