Many, if not most, of the 2025-26 Supreme Court rulings were antithetical to the values of our Unitarian Universalist progressive religious and spiritual movement. The Roberts court has continued to strip away the rights of people with less social class advantage – while multiplying the burden on those with intersectional oppressions.
The court, which had also nearly gutted the Voting Rights Act in an earlier session, further erased decades-old voting rights for people of color and those without class privilege by siding with the Louisiana Republican leadership that suggested that the United States is now a color-blind society. This clears the way for Republican legislatures across the South to redraw maps and erase majority-Black districts.
The court also let stand legislation that bans transgender girls from school sports, a decision that is only enforceable by conducting genital checks on children and teenagers. The decision means that state legislative bodies across the nation can follow suit.
SCOTUS also ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians and stripped the lower courts of the power to review most challenges. TPS has helped people with that status to flee violence and abject poverty to build a life with stable housing and income, gain educational opportunities for themselves and their children, and improve other critical class indicators. In addition, the ruling may upend elder care for elders with limited class privilege. TPS recipients make up a large share of frontline staff in the healthcare system.
In a related ruling, SCOTUS also sided with the Trump administration to stop asylum seekers from physically setting foot in the country, effectively keeping them from applying for asylum. The justification? Asylum seekers who present themselves at our border have not legally “arrived” and can be turned away before they ever set foot on U.S. soil.
A Ruling with Major Class Implications
There were other rulings that seem rooted in classism, sexism, racism and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. But, there is one ruling that has received less attention despite its impact on the very foundation of a social class-inclusive society. SCOTUS struck down decades-old campaign spending limits, unleashing unlimited party-coordinated money into our elections and making it even easier for oligarchs to buy politicians.
“At issue in the case was a post-Watergate law that Congress passed to limit the amount of money individuals can give to political parties. The law, the Federal Election Campaign Act, also limited how much money political parties can spend on their candidates. Other types of organizations, such as political action committees and Super PACs, have no limits on how much money they can raise and spend on elections. But unlike parties, they cannot coordinate with candidates.” (NPR).
This coordination now opens the door wide to corruption. Parties can be used as a vehicle for owning class donors, corporations, and others with copious amounts of money to give unlimited funds to a candidate of their choice, helping to “buy” that candidate’s vote on legislation that further increases the donor’s wealth. This is not the America we UUs want and need.