US News and World Report - The Political Ramifications of Supreme Court Intervention, Act II

U.S. News and World Report quoted Caroline Fredrickson, OMI’s strategic councilor on democracy and power, on the Supreme Court’s influence on elections.

Fredrickson said, “It’s an unfortunate fact of life that the Supreme Court has become an intricate part of our electoral structure — both in terms of the impact that it’s going to have in its substantive rulings but also how it addresses key questions around how our elections are administered.” 

A year after the Supreme Court reversed the guaranteed right to an abortion – a ruling that led young women to register to vote in droves – the decision is still sending shock waves though the Republican Party, crippling its ability to nab supermajorities and cement a conservative agenda.

What unfolded in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was perhaps the penultimate example of the political ramifications of a judicial institution.

Now brace for Act II.

Earlier this week the high court teed up a series of political hot potatoes, including a bid to maintain access to a widely used abortion pill, an appeal of one of the key charges filed against those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and – potentially – consideration of former President Donald Trump’s claim to vast executive immunity.

Combined with its earlier decision to also reconsider a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns, the cases that the justices agreed to hear are set to have major ramifications for voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election – and could potentially even dictate who returns to the White House.

Read full article here.