The Supreme Court adjourns for the summer having ruled in favor of freedom on a slate of consequential cases, resolving conflicts over everything from cellphones to wedding cakes to sports gambling by affirming the boundaries of coercion and upholding individual liberty.
In Carpenter v. United States, a 5-4 ruling issued last week will force the government to obtain warrants before accessing a cellphone user’s location data from their wireless carrier.
The 6-3 decision in Murphy v. NCAA struck down a law that barred states from legalizing sports betting.
A 5-4 majority on Tuesday ruled that California’s law forcing crisis pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion violated the First Amendment.
Another striking 5-4 majority, this time in the much-anticipated Janus v. AFSCME decision, will bar public sector unions from compelling nonunion government workers to join their ranks or pay fees to unions they don’t want to belong to.
And on June 4, a wider 7-2 majority ruled in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who had famously declined to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding on the grounds it violated his religious beliefs. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission thought otherwise, but the high court rightfully identified the commission’s treatment of Phillips as a violation of his First Amendment rights. Justices also sent a similar case involving a florist back to the lower courts in light of its decision in favor of Phillips.
All things considered, the Supreme Court’s pro-freedom rulings, taken together, marks this summer as one in which the limits of government power over states and individuals received due recognition from the most important legal authority in the land.
