THE RADICALS ON THE SUPREME COURT STRIKE AGAIN
Note: If you find my posts too long or too dense to read on occasion, please just read the bolded portions. They present the key points I’m making and the most important information I’m sharing.
The current “conservative” majority on the Supreme Court is actually a group of ideologically-driven, radical, judicial activists who have no intention of honoring precedents, despite their promises during confirmation hearings to do so. Although some of their radical precedent-breaking decisions get covered by the mainstream media, such as the recent voting rights case and the upcoming decision on pregnancy termination, many of them do not.
A recent Supreme Court case, known as Cedar Point Nursery vs. Hassid, involves the ability of union organizers to visit farms to talk to farm workers (as allowed under a 1975 California regulation). It’s a very significant decision that got very little attention in the mainstream media. A 1975 California regulation has required corporate farmers like Cedar Point (a 300-acre strawberry farm) to allow union organizers on its property to talk to workers for up to three one-hour periods on up to 120 days out of a year (one hour each before work, at lunch time, and after work to avoid interrupting work). Cedar Point sued claiming this was a government seizure of their property without compensation and was a violation of the Fifth Amendment (which states that “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”). Cedar Point claimed that this was a “taking” of its property because it is deprived of the “right to exclude” trespassers from its property, which, it claimed, is fundamental to true property ownership rights.
A lower court had ruled against Cedar Point, but it appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in favor of Cedar Point, finding that the regulation was a “taking” of private property and therefore Cedar Point was entitled to compensation. The six radical “conservative” justices were the majority.
This ruling overturns important elements of a 1978 Supreme Court precedent. That ruling established a framework for evaluating whether a governmental restriction on personal property rises to the level of a “taking”. The framework’s criteria include the economic impact of the law or regulation and the extent of its interference with a business. The requirements of the California regulation specifically minimized these impacts and had been in place and operating since 1975.
This ruling has potentially far-reaching implications. For example, a property owner’s “right to exclude” is the argument segregationists used to defend their exclusion of Blacks from places of business and other private venues. By giving new life to this argument (which the Supreme Court rejected in 1964), Roberts and his six-justice majority are opening the door to a whole range of lawsuits against anti-discrimination laws. Sooner or later the argument will probably be made that preventing a business, a private club, or an employer from excluding men or women, pregnant women, people of color (POC), or LGBTQ+ people is a “taking” of property rights. Also, it may well be argued that fair housing laws are a “taking” because they limit landlords’ “right to exclude” people, such as POC, LGBTQ+ people, families with children, or renters with a low-income governmental housing subsidy. [1]
Furthermore, worker safety inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), food safety inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, and pollution inspectors from the Environmental Protection Agency could be banned from companies’ property unless the companies are compensated. Although some language in the decision written by Chief Justice Roberts would appear to allow these inspections without compensation, challenges to them are likely. The possibility of challenging endangered species laws that require landowners to protect a species’ habitat has already been raised and a challenge to anti-pollution regulations would seem to be possible as well under the Supreme Court’s redefinition of what constitutes a “taking”.
In the Cedar Point decision, the six radical “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court have again shown their willingness to toss aside well-established precedents and to prioritize the rights of property owners over the civil rights of individuals. This decision may well lead to a variety of challenges from property owners – including landowners, landlords, employers, and businesses – to laws and regulations that protect civil rights, the safety of workers and consumers, and the environment, including initiatives to counter global warming and climate change.
[1] Mystal, E., 6/24/21, “Yesterday’s union-busting Supreme Court decision was a segregationist throwback,” The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cedar-point-court/)