For the most part, the end of the Supreme Court’s term last week marked the end of a remarkably successful session for conservatives and libertarians. Here are the top five conservative victories this year:
1. National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning
Back in January 2012, a defiant President Obama explained that, “We can’t wait to act to strengthen the economy, [etc],” when justifying his appointment of three members to the NLRB, bypassing the normal Senate confirmation process required by the Constitution except when the Senate is in “recess.” Last month, a unanimous Supreme Court held that yes, the Constitution does in fact require us to wait for Congressional approval of the President’s agenda, ruling that the appointments made during the Senate’s three-day adjournment were unconstitutional, invalidating over 1,000 decisions by the NLRB.
2. Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action
In a somewhat bizarre college affirmative action case, the Court held 6-2 that Michigan voters’ ban on affirmative action policies at state universities did not violate the Equal Protection clause by disadvantaging minorities. In other words, the Court was asked to decide whether the Constitution requires affirmative action policies which discriminate on the basis of race…seriously. A victory for common sense: Michigan didn’t deny equal treatment by mandating it.
3. Riley v. California
The Court unanimously held in Riley that the police may not search digital information on a cell phone from a person who has been arrested without first obtaining a search warrant. A big win for digital privacy rights, the Court compared the police’s rummaging through cell phones to British soldiers rummaging through homes prior to the American Revolution, concluding that “[t]he fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the founders fought.” One subtle implication of the opinion sure to frighten the Obama administration: the legal basis for the NSA’s phone metadata bulk collection program, currently under challenge, is probably much less defensible in the post-Riley legal landscape.
4. Harris v. Quinn
Harris is a politically significant 5-4 decision that largely flew under the radar due to its release the same day as the much more anticipated Hobby Lobby decision. The Court held that non-union home-care workers may not be forced to pay “agency fees” (i.e. dues) to a public-employee union when they do not wish to join. The ruling is a huge blow to unions, which have successfully pushed for compulsory membership dues for home-care workers in several states, resulting in millions of dollars in additional income for unions like the SEIU. You know liberals are worried about the ruling when it gets ironically labeled a “War on Workers.”
5. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.
In likely the most contentious ruling of the term, the Court held 5-4 that the Clinton-era Religious Freedom Restoration Act prohibited the government from mandating that the owners of Hobby Lobby provide certain types of contraception at no cost to their employees in violation of their sincere religious beliefs. Despite the predictable freak-out by left-leaning bloggers and journalists nationwide, the Court recognized that women could just as easily be provided no-cost contraception without burdening the rights of others. Given that the Obama administration had already granted broad exceptions to the contraception mandate last year with little outcry from the #WarOnWomen crowd, the Court probably got this one right.
