MSNBC host Symone Sanders gave a dire warning to her followers on Saturday, claiming that the Supreme Court was poised to make a series of radical decisions — ranging from outlawing Black History to allowing daycares to refuse Jewish children.
Sanders, who served as a prominent member of Joe Biden’s campaign before becoming the chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris, argued that it was “not hyperbole” to suggest that the current court might use the cases before it to do these things and worse.
“Last summer, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision, and that was just the opening act for the assault on our fundamental rights and freedoms,” Sanders began, and then she went on to lay out some of the cases and extrapolate their potential repercussions.
Referencing the cases brought by the organization Students for Fair Admissions, Sanders noted that the Court was set to weigh in on whether or not race should be considered as a factor when making college admissions decisions.
“But this court has a habit of overreaching. So, these two cases could actually upend affirmative action across the board,” she said, adding, “If the Supreme Court decides that race conscious decision-making and policies are unconstitutional, then everything from special government contracts and programs for minority owned businesses to targeted corporate recruitment at HBCUs would all be in jeopardy … Lawmakers, they could argue that specialized disciplines like African American or Latin American history are race conscious and therefore, illegal.”
Sanders then brought up Moore v. Harper, a case focusing on state legislatures’ power to set federal election laws in their own states — up to and including the power to draw congressional maps.
“So, goodbye to fighting partisan, gerrymandering in state and federal court or a gubernatorial veto. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund or Marc Elias, they won’t win any more voter suppression cases because they won’t even be allowed to sue. Sayonara to mail-in ballots if the state legislature thinks they’re unnecessary,” Sanders said.
Despite the fact that the Constitution already gave the states that power according to Article I, Section 4 — and gave Congress the power to check states that abused their responsibilities.
Sanders went on to argue that the court could use a case about business owners who did not want to be forced to bake wedding cakes or build wedding websites for same sex couples — if that did not align with their religious beliefs — to say that business owners should be allowed to refuse service to anyone.
“By the way, companies could use the ruling to legally deny service to anyone, not just members of the LGBTQ plus community. So that daycare, you like, it could assert their First Amendment rights to not take Jewish families or black children. A locally owned restaurant could put restrictions on who they allow inside,” she said.
“Given the track record of this court, you all, this is not hyperbole. Dr. Maya Angelou said, when people show you who they are, believe them the first time,” she concluded. “We have seen the damage that this conservative Supreme Court majority can do, so brace yourselves, folks, the decisions are coming.”