orderlyrandomness

The court held that the school was required to allow this: that in attempting to maintain separation of church and state – as is required by the first amendment’s establishment clause – they were actually infringing on Coach Kennedy’s free exercise rights. Thus, the court allowed the free exercise clause to effectively moot the establishment clause, denying Americans like Coach Kennedy’s students the freedom from religion that the church-state divide had previously granted them. It should not escape us that in issuing this ruling, and overturning a decades-old test for establishing the efficacy of church-state separation measures, the court relied on a version of the facts that is blatantly, demonstrably false.

The US supreme court is letting prayer back in public schools. This is unsettling | Moira Donegan

The court’s rightwing majority was extremely receptive to a case this week that would weaken the separation of church and state

“Today’s decision is particularly misguided because it elevates the religious rights of a school official, who voluntarily accepted public employment and the limits that public employment entails, over those of his students, who are required to attend school and who this Court has long recognized are particularly vulnerable and deserving of protection,” Sotomayor wrote. “In doing so, the Court sets us further down a perilous path in forcing States to entangle themselves with religion, with all of our rights hanging in the balance.”

Is there even a line anymore between church and state?

SCOTUS also quietly decided to take a step to remove established rights of indigenous people and weaken Tribal Sovereignty

Tribal sovereignty encompasses legal, cultural, political, and historical traditions that are a complex mix of both European and Indigenous approaches to governance. There are three types of sovereign governments in the United States: the federal government, state governments, and tribal governments.

The Supreme Court’s attack on tribal sovereignty, explained – High Country News

Four federal Indian law experts digest the Supreme Court’s ‘shocking’ decision to grant state governments the power to prosecute crimes in Indian Country.

An Issue of Sovereignty

Tribal sovereignty refers to the right of American Indians and Alaska Natives to govern themselves.

As someone else online said, if the US broke their agreement, better give them lan

And, what’s more, SCOTUS also ruled that we have no right to clean air, basically:

Supreme Court limits EPA in curbing power plant emissions

In a blow to the fight against climate change, the Supreme Court has limited how the nation’s main anti-air pollution law can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

Our government sucks. If we are “supposed to be” one of the best countries in the world (and I have had this discussion with many of you irl) what does that say for the rest of the world?

Jackson sworn in, becomes 1st Black woman on Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in to the Supreme Court, shattering a glass ceiling as the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.