Supreme Inequality by Adam Cohen: Pt. 1 Review
A couple of years ago I was visiting Toronto for my sister’s birthday. There was a lot of political news in both Canada and the United States at the time. Canadians were worried about the new trade deal to be forged with the United States and liberal Americans were concerned about the Brett Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court. While in an Uber pool after a late dinner, I got into a light debate with a Canadian about the Kavanaugh nomination. He of course talked about his concerns about the trade deal and seemed to believe that my concerns about the nomination weren’t as pressing. After I shared my concerns about another privileged conservative serving on the Supreme Court, the man I was talking to asked me if the dealings of the Supreme Court really affected me that much.
I have thought about this exchange a lot since it happened. Obviously, the man’s perspective is different from mine because he isn’t an American. However, it made me think even more about how important the rulings of the Supreme Court are. It made me think about how rulings made within the last 60 years have affected the ways I live my life. Unbeknownst to him, this man launched me on a mission to be even more concerned about the dealings of the Supreme Court. He caused me to question why rulings made after the 60s’ aren’t common knowledge to my friends and family. That newfound interest brought me to Adam Cohen’s book Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America.
In Supreme Inequality, Cohen claims that our society has become harsher on the most marginalized among us. That harshness has become the law of land because of specific rulings made by the Supreme Court since the retirement of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren began his tenure as Chief Justice in 1953 and subsequently handed down some of the most important rulings in our country’s history. These include Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), Gideon vs. Wainwright (1963), Miranda vs. Arizona (1966), and Loving vs. Virginia (1967). These rulings changed the country in profound ways. So much so that when you think of the implications of these rulings you feel almost entitled. That is the power of the Supreme Court in the United States of America.
The first part of the book brings great pride to the reader. You learn about the strong values that ruled the court and how Chief Justice Warren did all he could to guide the court into the role of advocating for the people. The book takes a turn when you begin to learn about the techniques used by the Nixon White House to completely change the identity of the Supreme Court. Through means that appear illegal at most and unethical at least, Nixon did all he could to forge the type of Supreme Court we are accustomed to today. One that is extremely conservative and one that is more sympathetic to the powerful minority. Not only was his goal to have a court support his own ideals, but it has been said that Nixon and Warren hated each other. After Warren’s attempts to thwart Nixon’s destruction of his fabled court, the Supreme Court began a new regime.
I’m in awe of the drama and the stories behind the transformation of the Supreme Court. It’s almost like reading a political drama full of twists and turns. Ego seems to be most powerful catalyst. Cohen does an excellent job of telling the backstories of the Supreme Court Justices so that the reader can make sense of their dissenting and concurring opinions. We are all the sum of our experiences. The ways that Supreme Court Justices interpret the laws confirms that idea. I’ve now transitioned into more present day rulings and how they changed from the perspectives held by the Warren court justices. Be on the lookout for the second part of my review.