Politicians Play Chicken Little

Due to recent Supreme Court decisions, we have had the pleasure of hearing from numerous modern versions of chicken little (politicians and public pundits) that the sky is falling. OK, not exactly the sky but according to these modern purveyors of doom, we are about to lose our freedom of speech, our voting rights are about to be lost, some minorities are doomed to never attend a university and more.

We are told that we as a nation, has a problem, and that problem is the Supreme Court which is woefully out of touch with the American people. We are offered various solutions such as packing the court with judges who understand the American mind. Other suggestions include term limits (this from career politicians who spend their entire lives in the sacred halls of the Capitol), enforcing Justices to testify before Congress every time they make a decision that right-thinking politicians disagree with, etc.

Yet those very same politicians seem to live in a bubble where they believe the volumes of silliness they spew forth during daily diatribes. A recent SCOTUS poll of 2,209 Americans by research from the University of Texas, Stanford University and Harvard (NYT, 7/2/23, pp18-19) points to a quite different conclusion. It is the foaming at the mouth politicians who are woefully out of touch with the American public, not the majority of the judges on the Court. Let us look at the result of the poll.

1. Affirmative Action:  The Court found that Harvard and the University of North Carolina unlawfully used race as a basis for admissions:
   1. 69% of Americans agreed, including 58% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 78% of Republicans.
2. Student Debt: The Biden plan to wipe out $400 billion in student debt was un-Constitutional.
   1. 50% of Americans agreed but only 27% of Democrats agreed, while 53% of independents and 72% of Republicans agreed with the Court.
3. Freedom of Speech vs. discrimination based on sexual orientation:
   1. 51% of all Americans agreed but only 34% of Democrats agree while 54% of independents and 66% of republicans agreed.
4. State legislatures do not have unlimited power over all election laws.
   1. 55% of all Americans agreed including 61% of Democrats and 53% of independents and 50% of Republicans.
5. Alabama had diluted the power of Black voters in a redistricting.
   1. 53% of all Americans agreed including 65% of Democrats and 52% of independents while only 39% of Republicans agreed.

There were seven more major decisions by the court and most Americans agreed with the court by margins of 51-74%. In fact, there were only two cases where less than 51% of the population disagreed with the court, they are being:

• Internet companies may not be suited for abetting terrorism by not removing videos supporting the Islamic state (only 29% of all Americans agreed with the Court) and
• A decision on the Clean Water Act where only 28% agreed with the Court.

While the margin was often close (50-52% in four cases), in nearly 50% of the cases all three groups, Democrats, independents and Republicans agreed with each other as a majority of each group supported the Courts’ decision.

It is also interesting to note that of the eleven cases, three were decided on a 9-0 basis, two were a 7-2 basis and three were on a 5-4 basis, hardly a Court that was out of control.  The only three Justices who voted as a solid block were the three left of center Justices while in eight cases, the conservatives Justices voted with the liberal Justices.

The lesson here is that like the tale of Chicken Little, we cannot allow ourselves to be snared and moved by those who seek to demigod issues. This is also true of the press who magnify politicians on both sides of the aisle who make silly and untruthful comments. We should all be tired of politicians who speak for all of us without paying any attention to the reality of what we want from our government. The next time you hear a someone say, “the vast majority of Americans,” hold them to account.