A federal judge leveled harsh accusations toward Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, saying his legal decisions have promoted “economic inequality,” “undermined democracy,” and “increased the political power of corporations and wealthy individuals.”
Judge Lynn Adelman, a district judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, bashed Roberts in an upcoming article for Harvard Law & Policy Review titled “The Roberts Court’s Assault on Democracy.”
“The Roberts Court has been anything but passive,” wrote Adelman, a Clinton appointee. “Rather, the Court’s hard-right majority is actively participating in undermining American democracy. Indeed, the Roberts Court has contributed to ensuring that the political system in the United States pays little attention to ordinary Americans and responds only to the wishes of a relatively small number of powerful corporations and individuals,” the upcoming article reads, according to Fox News.
Adelman raised two areas where he feels the Supreme Court failed: voting rights and campaign finances. “The Court has virtually eviscerated the landmark Voting Rights Act, it has upheld strict voter identification laws that serve no purpose other than to make voting more difficult, and it has authorized states to purge thousands of people from the voting rolls. In addition, the Court has abdicated its responsibility to end the anti-democratic process of partisan gerrymandering,” the article abstract reads.
“The second way in which the Court is weakening democracy is by reinforcing the enormous imbalance in wealth and political power that has developed in recent decades and that has contributed to undermining democracy,” he continues.
Adelman also compares the belief system of congressional Republicans to slave-holders in the antebellum South.
“The zealous partisanship the Republicans displayed in connection with the Garland nomination, as well as judicial appointments generally reminds one of nothing so much as the ‘fire-eaters,’ those fervent defenders of slavery who pushed the South into the Civil War,” he reportedly wrote.
