Perspectives: The Supreme Court and Bipartisanship
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Despite increasing political polarization in the U.S., the Supreme Court has delivered several recent unanimous or near-majority rulings on high profile cases. June 17 saw both a unanimous ruling by the Court on Fulton v. Philadelphia, and a 7-2 ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act. This month, a Pennsylvania cheerleader's free speech case and a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) federal antitrust case also saw unanimous or near-unanimous rulings from the Justices. This comes as some argue that the Supreme Court has become partisan and "unbalanced." President Joe Biden, who called the U.S. court system "out of whack" during his presidential campaign, created a commission in April to investigate adding seats to the Supreme Court.
Some on social media expressed their surprise at a "rare" unanimous Supreme Court ruling, while some outlets pointed out that the percentage of all unanimous Supreme Court ranged from 36% to 66% between 2008 and 2019. Some voices on the right claimed that the "divided" Supreme Court narrative was being pushed by Democratic lawmakers as an excuse to change the structure of the Supreme Court and gain political power. Others commended the justices for "properly practicing politics" by reaching "broad agreement on narrow issues" and avoiding blatant partisanship.
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