ACS Statement in Preparation for Supreme Court Decisions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nancy Rodriguez, media@acslaw.org

Washington, DC – With the Supreme Court’s current term winding down next month, the Court is expected to hand down dozens of decisions in the coming weeks that could have devastating effects on voting rights, racial equality, workers’ rights, and more.

“As the highest court in our country, we should look to the Supreme Court to rule against oppression and in support of multiracial democracy,” said American Constitution Society President Russ Feingold. “Instead, we are bracing for more decisions from this packed Court that distort themselves beyond legal recognition in order to advance the supermajority’s partisan agenda. With several of the cases this term, the conservative supermajority is poised to strike particularly devastating blows to our country’s pursuit of a genuinely multiracial democracy and instead to further entrench economic and racial inequity.”

ACS legal experts are monitoring several cases during the 2023 SCOTUS Term. They include:

 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

“This case has been mischaracterized as pitting free expression against LGBTQ+ rights. 303 Creative is a business providing a service to the general public and should be held to the same antidiscrimination laws as every other business. Any effort by the Court to try to parse types of discrimination is a very dangerous and slippery slope that could weaken anti-discrimination statutes beyond just LGBTQ+ protection.”

--Christopher Wright Durocher, Vice President of Policy and Program

Moore v. Harper, Allen v. Milligan, and Haaland v. Brackeen

“We are confronting the real possibility that this packed Supreme Court will ignore Alabama’s blatantly illegal racial gerrymandering scheme and instead use Allen v. Milligan as an opportunity to destroy what little remains of the Voting Rights Act. It will be a devastating blow to representative democracy in this country.”

 --Lindsay Langholz, Senior Director of Policy and Program

SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina

“The 14^th Amendment was specifically intended to level the playing field for African Americans after slavery. And yet, even with affirmative action in place, Black Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders are underrepresented in all levels of higher education. If the Court outlaws affirmative action, it will be in defiance of the 14^th Amendment and will make it that much harder for communities of color to access educational opportunity and for institutions to address racial disparities going forward.”

--Taonga Leslie, Director of Policy and Program for Racial Justice

Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters

“Employers already have tools to avoid or limit the potential economic harm of a strike. If the Court allows tort claims based on property damage resulting from a strike to proceed, it will further tip the scale in favor of employers. Such a result would add to employers’ coercive power and leave unions to guess when, if ever, they can strike without the threat of tort liability – serving as a deterrent to strike at all.”

--Elizabeth Binczik, Director of Policy and Program for Economic Justice

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AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
The American Constitution Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan legal organization. Through a diverse nationwide network of progressive lawyers, law students, judges, scholars, advocates, and many others, our mission is to support and advocate for laws and legal systems that strengthen our democratic legitimacy, uphold the rule of law, and redress the founding failures of our Constitution and enduring inequities in our laws in pursuit of realized equality. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter @acslaw.