LGBT, Dreamers, abortion: has the US Supreme Court become progressive?

And three. By overturning a very restrictive Louisiana abortion law on Monday June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court inflicted a third setback on Donald Trump and the Conservatives in just two weeks. A surprisingly favorable series of decisions favorable to the progressives, when a majority of conservative judges make up this highest court in the United States.

Already on June 15, the Supreme Court granted LGBT employees the benefit of mechanisms to combat discrimination at work, prohibiting any employer from dismissing a person because of their sexual orientation.

Three days later, on June 18, it validated the protections granted by Barack Obama to the 700,000 "Dreamers", these young migrants who went underground to the United States when they were children, deeming "arbitrary" and "capricious" the Donald Trump's decision to remove the provisions of the program called Daca (for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals).

>> Read: Presidential election: abortion, a crucial issue for Donald Trump

Finally, on Monday, the judges overturned a Louisiana law requiring doctors performing abortions to obtain a license to practice in a hospital located less than 50 km from the place of the intervention.

Three decisions that were welcomed as major victories for progressives and as a real snub for Donald Trump, who reacted strongly on social networks. The high court "spits in the face of people proud to consider themselves republicans or conservatives", reacted the president of the United States after the decision on the Dreamers, denouncing in a tweet to the vitriol of "horrible" and "political" decisions . And to add: "Do you have the impression that the Supreme Court does not love me?"

These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!

Do not make the Supreme Court appear to be partisan

Nine judges make up the Supreme Court. Four are considered progressive: Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Five are labeled conservative: Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh - the latter two having been appointed by Donald Trump.

Hence the feeling of betrayal felt by the American president, in particular vis-à-vis Neil Gorsuch, who brought his voice in the decision on the rights of LGBT workers, writing in passing the judgment of the Court.

>> See: United States: what is the Supreme Court?

"These decisions do not mean that they have become progressive. Simply, the head of the Supreme Court that flipped the votes, John Roberts, is aware that if the court makes too many decisions favorable to the Conservatives, it will be seen as being partisan and will gradually lose its credibility and legitimacy ", explains Anne Deysine, emeritus professor at Paris-Ouest Nanterre University and author of" The Supreme Court of the United States "(Éd. Dalloz), contacted by France 24.

"But at the same time as John Roberts voted with the progressives, he delivered a manual to the conservatives to try a new action which would allow him this time to vote with the conservatives," she adds.

In the case of the "Dreamers", John Roberts thus specifically pointed out the "arbitrary" and unjustified nature of Donald Trump's decision, explaining to the Conservatives the mistakes that should no longer be made so that he votes on their side . The same goes for abortion when he shows his attachment to respecting "res judicata". The Louisiana law was indeed almost similar to a Texas text, which the Supreme Court had struck down in 2016, deeming it too restrictive.

The appointment of judges, a future major theme of the campaign

"We have examined the files closely" and they "are comparable in all respects and impose the same result. Consequently, we find that the law of Louisiana is unconstitutional," ruled the High Court. John Roberts, who had supported Texas law in 2016, this time voted against it. "I still think it was a bad decision" to invalidate him four years ago, he wrote on Monday. The question is not, however, whether the Supreme Court was "right or wrong" in 2016 but "whether our judgment binds us in the present case", he continued, holding that "the doctrine legal ".

As for the decision on LGBT rights, it was the "textualist" vision of judges Roberts and Gorsuch that played out. "The textualists consider that the word or the text should be privileged in a law and refuse to take into consideration the intention of the legislator. In this case, this made it possible to read in the word 'sex' the meaning 'sexual orientation "when Congress certainly did not have this intention when it adopted the law against discrimination in hiring in 1964", specifies Anne Deysine.

>> Read: Donald Trump engages in a public feud with the head of the Supreme Court

All these legal considerations do not do the business of Donald Trump, more used to acting on his impulses and who prides himself on honoring his campaign promises. He notably conquered the religious right in 2016 by committing to appoint conservative judges throughout the federal judicial system and had promised to bring into the Supreme Court magistrates opposed to the right to abortion and favorable to the wearing of 'weapons.

Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?

Since his election, he has obtained, thanks to the Republican majority in the Senate, the confirmation of 195 judges on 860 positions throughout the country, according to the official Federal Judicial Center website. And as the White House noted in November, their average age is less than 50, which ensures "lasting impact on the courts for decades". A record that allows the American president to be proud: only George Washington, the first president of the United States, has done better with "100%" of the appointments, he jokes regularly on the platforms of campaign.

"The recent decisions will push him to make it an even more important campaign theme in 2020," said Anne Deysine, which seems to be confirmed by her tweets. The latest Supreme Court decisions "mean only one thing: we need NEW JUDGES," he tweeted. By September 1, "I will publish the list of new Conservative candidates," he added, calling on voters to vote for him to secure their nomination.

The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and ...

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