The far-right court has entered "a new era of extreme partisanship" and American women, minorities, and voters are paying the price.

Atlanta – As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares issue decisions – potentially on Louisiana v. Callais which could gut the Voting Rights Act – the Washington Post released an analysis confirming that the Court remade by Donald Trump is rolling back Americans’ freedoms at a historic rate. The Court, reshaped by Trump's three appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, is the first since before the Civil Rights Movement to reject civil and voting rights claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities.

The analysis examined the first five terms of the six-justice far-right majority, including 270 decisions from 2020 to 2024 and compared them to every court going back to the New Deal era. The reporting reveals the Trump court has dramatically weakened the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in elections.

In a rare speech made at the University of Texas, Justice Clarence Thomas leaves no ambiguity about the court’s ideological agenda. In his remarks, he described progressivism as an existential threat to America, claiming it “seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government.” Justice Thomas, who has spent decades dismantling the legal framework protecting voting rights, reproductive freedom, and civil rights, makes clear his ideological manifesto and the intention of the court.

Comment from Lauren Groh-Wargo, Fair Fight Action CEO: “The data doesn't lie: Trump's Supreme Court is the most anti-freedom court we’ve seen in generations – unless you’re a billionaire or a big corporation. For the first time since the civil rights era, America’s highest court is actively rolling back the rights of women and minorities. Trump's justices are not interpreting the law, they are rewriting it – acting as the legal personnel for far-right special interests. The people paying the price are the same communities that had to march, bleed, and die just to earn the right to vote."

Key Findings from the Washington Post: 

• The success rate for civil rights cases has fallen to 44 percent since Trump's three justices took their seats – the first time in over 70 years that a majority of civil rights claims before the court have failed. At the peak of the Warren era in the 1950s and 1960s, that rate was 74 percent.
• The court's conservatives support protecting voting rights and upholding campaign finance restrictions in only 7 percent of cases, the lowest rate recorded since at least the 1950s. The court's liberal justices supported voting protections in 87 percent of cases.

• Since Barrett joined the court, justices have issued conservative rulings in 54 percent of cases – the highest rate since the 1930s, equaled only by the Burger Court from 1969 until the mid-1980s.
• Trump has won roughly 75 percent of emergency docket rulings this term, allowing him to ban transgender soldiers from the military, strip deportation protections from migrants, gut the Education Department, and fire the heads of independent agencies while legal challenges play out.
• The partisan gap between Democratic- and Republican-appointed justices has exploded to 48 percentage points – up from a 35-point gap before 2020, and six times the spread during the Warren era. Researchers put it plainly: "There is no center now."

GOP Scheme to Transform the Court: As speculation has grown around the possible retirements of 76-year-old Justice Samuel Alito and 77-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas, Trump told Fox Business this week he already has a short list of replacements. He stated he’s “prepared” to appoint two or three additional justices.

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Sources close to both Alito and Thomas said to CBS News this week they do not plan to step down this year. But the pressure is building: if Republicans lose the Senate in November, the window for a like-minded replacement closes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the GOP would move quickly to fill any vacancy. As one analyst noted, if Alito, Thomas, or 71-year-old Chief Justice Roberts were all to retire, Trump would be on track to appoint his fourth, fifth, and even sixth justice to the court. That outcome is not accidental. It is the product of a decades-long, dark money-fueled project to transform the Supreme Court into the far-right’s legal personnel.

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Engineered primarily by Federalist Society co-founder Leonard Leo played an instrumental role in placing every conservative justice now sitting on the court. Leo has used his access to funnel influence and money to the justices he helped seat. According to reporting, Leo introduced Justice Thomas to billionaire Harlan Crow, who then provided Thomas with decades of undisclosed luxury travel, private jet flights, and paid private school tuition for a family member. Leo also organized a luxury fishing trip to Alaska for Justice Alito with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, a trip Alito failed to disclose while later hearing cases in which Singer had financial interests.

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From 2014-2017, Leo collected more than $250 million in dark money for conservative nonprofits  followed by a $1.6 billion gift to a Leo-controlled trust. This is not a court that reflects the will of the American people. It is a court that was purchased.

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What it Means for Voting Rights: In Louisiana v. Callais, the court now appears poised to gut Section 2 of the VRA, the law's last major pillar after Shelby County v. Holder stripped away its preclearance requirements and led states to almost immediately enact new voter laws that restricted ballot access for voters of color. A ruling limiting or eliminating Section 2 would remove the primary remaining legal tool minority voters have to challenge discriminatory maps and election practices.

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A ruling gutting Section 2 could have a cascading effect on congressional maps in mostly Southern states where Republicans control the legislature or hold a veto-proof majority – and where voting is racially polarized. As of today, Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina have already passed new congressional maps with the aim of gaining additional Republican seats. It’s estimated that as much as 30 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus and 11 percent of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus could be lost. 

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The Washington Post analysis reports public confidence in the court is declining alongside its independence. According to the latest Gallup poll, 52 percent of Americans now disapprove of the court's job performance, while only 42 percent approve. As one of the Washington Post analysis authors noted: "The people see such a deep divide among the justices, it undermines the sense of procedural fairness and gives the sense that the cases are coming prejudged."

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