The United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Court is six to three in favor of Republican appointees, three picked by President Trump. Yet recent terms have given us remarkably few conservative decisions to show for it. The liberal agenda advances largely unchecked.
For instance, the Santa Clara County Office of Education is requiring teachers to be pro-LGBTQ even in math problems. One recommended book for three- and four-year-olds invites children to find an intersex flag and a drag king and queen at a pride parade. Parents have sued. The Court's 2024 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor was supposed to protect parental rights, but was written so weakly that districts have simply ignored it. New lawsuits are already being filed in California over issues the Court supposedly resolved.
The Court heard only fifty-eight oral arguments this term — roughly a third of what the liberal Warren Court handled in the late 1950s and '60s. In the past decade, the Court has averaged about sixty cases per year, the lowest since the Civil War. Only four justices are needed to accept a case for review. Justices Thomas and Alito have repeatedly voted to take up crucial cases on abortion, transgender policies, vaccine mandates, and parental rights — only to be left without the three Trump appointees needed to join them. Important cases get ducked and bad lower court rulings stand.
This pattern is clear and troubling. These newer Republican justices are systematically avoiding the consequential social issues of our time. In the most recent abortion case, all Republican nominees except Thomas and Alito sided with abortion pill manufacturers, allowing wide distribution in pro-life states without any in-person dispensing requirement. The Court punted an appeal from Amish schools fined by New York for declining vaccines rather than uphold a clear religious liberty right.
Democrats are beating the drum for “court packing” — adding at least four justices the moment they take power. The difference: those justices wouldn't tread water on the issues that matter.
The window for lasting conservative precedents is open right now. Thomas and Alito won't serve forever. The Trump nominees need only vote with them; the question is whether they have the courage to do it.
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