“Supreme Inequality”: Author Adam Cohen on the Supreme Court’s 50-Year Battle Against Justice

The makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court has come under intense criticism in recent years after two Trump-nominated justices joined the bench. Senate Republicans confirmed Neil Gorsuch in 2017 after having refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee in his final year in office, and they confirmed Brett Kavanaugh a year later despite multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against the judge. During the 2020 Democratic presidential contest, several candidates floated the idea of “packing the court” — appointing more than nine justices — in order to counter the court’s rightward drift. But while the current Supreme Court often earns the ire of progressive lawmakers and activists, our guest Adam Cohen says it has actually been a force for injustice for the last 50 years, despite what Americans are taught about the court’s role in protecting the rights of marginalized people. “The Supreme Court — which is an institution that we think of as the bastion of fairness, the advocate for the underdog — has actually been a major driver of inequality,” says Cohen. His new book is “Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America.”

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