A SCOTUS term like no other
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2022
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court — just after the court delivered a blow to President Biden’s climate plan. Today, we talk about the divided court and what it means for the future of our democracy.
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On Thursday, the Supreme Court sharply cut back the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce the carbon output of existing power plants, a major setback for the Biden administration’s plans to combat climate change.
The vote was 6 to 3 — like many votes were this term — with the court’s conservative supermajority voting together on blockbuster issue after issue, including gun control and abortion.
“Any one of these would have been a big decision on its own,” says Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes. “The fact that there were so many of them this term is what I think has really put the Supreme Court in the public eye in a way that it hasn't been for years.”
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I |
| 0:03.3 | Ketanji Brown Jackson. I |
| 0:05.8 | Ketanji Brown Jackson do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will administer justice that I will administer justice without |
| 0:14.8 | respect to persons without respect to persons and do equal right and do equal right to the poor and to the rich to the poor and to the rich |
| 0:25.6 | A little afternoon today |
| 0:27.6 | Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A very short |
| 0:35.5 | ceremony but one that pretends a huge change for the Supreme Court which now is no longer a court with the majority of white men |
| 0:46.9 | It for the first time has four women serving simultaneously which is as close to parody as you can get on a nine member |
| 0:55.1 | a court the moment was historic but Jackson is joining the bench just as the court has wrapped up an especially controversial term |
| 1:04.9 | You know it was a |
| 1:06.5 | Contexta and |
| 1:08.9 | contentious and it was also historic |
| 1:13.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post this is post reports. I'm Ella Haye Zadi in for Martin powers. It's Thursday June 30th |
| 1:23.0 | Today, we're talking to Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes about the term that just finished how the court has moved sharply to the right and what we can learn from its big decisions besides overturning Roe v Wade |
| 1:41.5 | Religion interest basically ran the table at the Supreme Court |
| 1:46.0 | Including a decision that said a state that offers tuition help for parents to send their kids to private schools have to extend it to private religious schools |
| 1:58.4 | That's something that the court has never held before and something that those who were opposed to |
| 2:05.6 | sort of the inter entanglement between government and religion is quite concerned about |
| 2:12.0 | It made it harder for states and localities to |
| 2:17.3 | Restrict the ability to get a permit to carry a weapon outside the home |
| 2:22.4 | That's something that the court had never ruled on before today. It |
| 2:28.1 | Limited the environmental protection agencies ability to combat |
... |
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