How Republicans Stole Two Supreme Court Seats In March 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court with 293 days remaining in his term. Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings, claiming voters should decide in the upcoming election. In September 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died with just 46 days before the election. Senate Republicans rushed through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation in record time—just 30 days from nomination to confirmation. ...

The Day the Voting Rights Act Died On June 25, 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a 5-4 conservative majority in Shelby County v. Holder, effectively gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the most important civil rights legislation in American history. Within hours, Texas announced it would implement the nation’s most restrictive voter ID law—a law that had been blocked under federal preclearance. Three days later, Alabama passed strict photo ID requirements. ...

When Words Ring Hollow Chief Justice John Roberts released his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary, and it’s a remarkable document—not for what it says, but for what it so carefully avoids saying. Roberts chose to focus on Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and the Declaration of Independence, waxing eloquent about America’s founding principles and the judiciary’s sacred duty to decide cases “faithfully and impartially.” It’s a beautiful sentiment. It’s also utterly disconnected from the reality of the Supreme Court he leads. ...

Democracy’s Darkest Irony Here’s a fact that should alarm every American who believes in majority rule: six of the nine current Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican presidents who lost the popular vote when they first ran for office—and confirmed by senators representing a minority of the American population. This isn’t democracy. It’s minority rule with a lifetime appointment. ...

No Single Fix Will Save Us When confronting the Supreme Court’s crisis of legitimacy, reformers often advocate for a single solution: “Just add term limits.” “Just expand the Court.” “Just pass ethics rules.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth: no single reform—however well-designed—will fix a Supreme Court captured by the Federalist Society, funded by dark money, staffed with justices who accept millions in gifts, grant presidents immunity for crimes, dismantle gun safety laws, and overturn precedents based on ideology. ...

Federal Agency or White Nationalist Content Mill? The Department of Homeland Security—the federal agency responsible for protecting Americans from terrorism and extremism—has turned its official social media accounts into a distribution network for racist memes, white nationalist imagery, and content celebrated by neo-Nazis. This isn’t hyperbole. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch documented how “the agency and top Trump administration officials have ramped up their promotion of white nationalist or anti-immigrant social media posts” throughout 2024 and 2025. ...

When Access Journalism Becomes Propaganda CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford recently declared that the Supreme Court corruption narrative is “dangerous” and “patently false”. Her defense of Justices Thomas and Alito: the Court is simply “conservative,” and criticism of its decisions doesn’t equal corruption. This is gaslighting disguised as legal analysis. ...

The United States Is the Outlier Among established democracies with independent judiciaries and strong rule of law, the United States stands virtually alone in granting supreme court justices lifetime appointments with no mandatory retirement age. Every other comparable democracy has recognized what America refuses to acknowledge: unlimited judicial tenure concentrates too much power in too few hands for too long. ...

How the Roberts Court Dismantled Accountability in One Term In a single Supreme Court term spanning 2022-2024, six unelected justices fundamentally rewrote the balance of power in American government. Three decisions stand out for their devastating impact on democratic accountability and the rule of law: Trump v. United States (July 2024): Presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (June 2024): Federal agencies can no longer interpret ambiguous statutes—courts will instead New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (June 2022): Gun regulations must match 18th-century historical traditions, not modern public safety needs ...

The Power Congress Forgot It Had Article III of the Constitution gives Congress an extraordinary power over the Supreme Court—one that could neutralize the Court’s most extreme decisions without adding a single justice, imposing term limits, or amending the Constitution. It’s called jurisdiction stripping, and it works like this: Congress can remove the Supreme Court’s power to hear certain categories of cases, preventing the Court from imposing its will on issues where it has overreached. ...

Two Justices, Millions in Gifts, Zero Consequences In December 2024, after 20 months of investigation, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a devastating 95-page report documenting what it called an “ethical crisis at the Supreme Court.” The findings were damning: Justice Clarence Thomas “accepted lavish gifts from billionaires with business before the court for almost his entire tenure as a justice,” with gifts of a “number, value, and extravagance” that have “no comparison in modern American history.” ...

Six Justices, One Organization, Billionaire Funding Six of the nine current Supreme Court justices are current or former members of the Federalist Society: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. This isn’t coincidence. It’s the culmination of a decades-long, billionaire-funded project to capture the federal judiciary and implement a conservative legal agenda that couldn’t win at the ballot box. ...

Taking the Politics Out of Court Appointments Imagine if Supreme Court appointments didn’t dominate presidential elections. Imagine if no single retirement or death could shift the ideological balance of the Court for a generation. Imagine if Americans couldn’t predict how every major case would be decided based on which president appointed which justice. That’s the promise of rotating judicial panels—one of the most innovative and potentially transformative Supreme Court reform proposals. ...

The Only Court in America Without Enforceable Ethics Rules Here’s a fact that should shock every American: The Supreme Court’s nine justices are the only federal judicial officers who are not subject to a specific and binding code of ethics. Every other federal judge in America—from district courts to circuit courts of appeals—faces enforceable ethical rules and potential discipline for violations. All fifty state supreme courts subject their justices to ethics reviews with real consequences. ...

The Winning Streak Breaks On December 20, 2025, the Supreme Court delivered something extraordinary: a loss for the Trump administration. The Court rejected the administration’s emergency request to block a lawsuit challenging its “gag rule” on immigration judges—a policy that categorically forbids judges from speaking publicly about immigration or the agency that employs them, even in their personal capacity. ...

“A Rejection of the Common Sense of the American People” On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most destructive decisions in American history. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, five conservative justices struck down restrictions on corporate political spending, opened the floodgates to unlimited money in politics, and fundamentally corrupted American democracy. The numbers tell the story: Outside spending exploded 28-fold, from $144 million in 2008 to over $4.2 billion in 2024. Dark money groups have poured more than $4.3 billion into elections from undisclosed sources. Just 100 billionaires spent $2.6 billion in the 2024 election—nearly 20% of all spending. ...

Two Dead, Nine Wounded—And Counting On December 13, 2025, a gunman opened fire at Brown University during a final exam review session, killing two students and wounding nine others. The shooter used a 9mm handgun to massacre students studying for an introductory economics exam. This was the 43rd shooting on a college or university campus in 2025 that resulted in a casualty. ...

A Million-Dollar Fast Track to Bypass Congress President Trump launched his “Gold Card” visa program this week, offering foreign nationals expedited permanent residency for a $1 million “gift” to the Department of Commerce—or $2 million if sponsored by a corporation. The program raises a fundamental constitutional question: Can a president simply bypass Congress to rewrite immigration law if you have enough money to pay? ...

The United States Is Alone When defenders of the Supreme Court’s current structure argue that reform would be “radical” or “unprecedented,” they’re counting on Americans not knowing how other democracies structure their highest courts. The truth? The United States is a global outlier—and not in a good way. Among major democracies, the United States is alone in providing life tenure for members of its highest court. Alone in having no mandatory retirement age. Alone in having no enforceable ethics code with real consequences. ...

“With Fear for Our Democracy, I Dissent” On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most dangerous decisions in American history. In Trump v. United States, the Court’s conservative supermajority ruled that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their “official acts”—essentially placing them above the law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, reading her dissent from the bench in a rare show of protest, delivered a chilling warning: “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” ...