The Supreme Court in the Era of its Conservative Majority
Jane Scarborough
Ph.D. Rice University,
J.D. Northeastern, Retired Professor, Constitutional Law
One class Monday February 1 from 10:30 – 12:00
The “New” Roberts Court: With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court now has the most reliably conservative majority since the early years of the last century.
From 1897 to 1937, during what is now commonly referred to as the “Lochner era,” the Court struck down law directed at social reform passed during the Progressive Movement. This era is now universally seen by legal scholars as a dark period in the Court’s history. Does this new Court foreshadow a return to a Lochner-style retrogressive period? What is Chief Justice John Roberts’s role in this new Court, and what shift in its views on civil rights, abortion, religion in the public square, and gun control can we expect out of this new majority?