Since its inception, the Supreme Court has issued decisions rooted in consensus. Recently, the justices have “defied critics” with “historic unanimity” on cases that lower courts decided against constitutional principles. Of the 32 cases decided in the 2023 term, 21 were agreed upon by all the justices, many indicating lower courts’ constitutional violations.
In the unanimous decision on former President Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility in Colorado, Justice Amy Coney Barrett emphasized that “the message Americans should take home” was the justices’ unified conclusion.
“For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine justices agree on the outcome of this case,” she wrote.
Such reminders that lower courts lack unrestricted authority are not uncommon. In the unanimous ruling National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, Justice Neil Gorsuch warned that lower courts, like the Second Circuit, misuse “four-pronged ‘multifactor tests’” to secure desired rulings rather than using them as guideposts.
“Lower courts would therefore do well to heed this Court’s directive: Whatever value these ‘guideposts’ serve, they remain ‘just’ that and nothing more,” Gorsuch wrote.
In the NRA case, all justices agreed that the Second Circuit should have considered New York state officials’ actions as a threat to penalize or repress the plaintiff’s speech.
Justices’ agreement indicates lower courts — not the highest court — are the ones that have “gone off the rails.”
Inferior courts in predominantly blue areas have allowed partisanship and misconduct to flourish, necessitating firm action from the Supreme Court.
This rise in poorly ruled cases is linked to courts led by judges who demonstrate a clear disregard for the Constitution and dishonesty towards Congress. President Joe Biden’s list of judicial nominees, aimed at fulfilling Democrats’ race and sex quotas, aggravates the situation, leading to more bad decisions being sent to the Supreme Court.
This activism persists until the Supreme Court can review and issue a corrective decision, causing delays that hinder justice for Americans whose constitutional rights have been infringed, like in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.
The Supreme Court’s recent unanimous rulings highlight that corporate media are misleadingly deceptive and underline the abuse of power by lower courts to achieve partisan and unconstitutional results.
