American judges may find it difficult to oversee political questions when science is increasingly politicized. Judges are generalists on anything outside the law, and the judicial system asks lawyers on competing sides to offer their own experts and evidence. The theory is that through this clash of ideas, neutral judges will find the truth. Social science suggests that may not work as envisioned, especially in the most politically contentious cases.
Americans as a whole remain confident in science, but compared with the mid-1970s, a large partisan gap has emerged, with Republicans becoming much less confident.
As legal scholar Mary Ziegler writes, the antiabortion movement is fostering a “jurisprudence of uncertainty.” Activists have learned that they do not need to conclusively refute established scientific consensus. They need only to cite “sympathetic researchers” who can summon some doubt, giving sympathetic legislatures and courts the backing needed to ignore the scientific mainstream.
New groups such as the American College of Pediatricians — a conservative answer to the American Academy of Pediatrics — and the Witherspoon Institute partner with more-established organizations to offer a veneer of scientific respectability in legal and legislative proceedings. The Heritage Foundation, the Alliance Defending Freedom and other conservative groups use these experts to contest any references to scientific consensus and to activate judicial ambivalence toward science.
Political science research has found that such support structures for litigation can revolutionize politics and law. Conservatives have built effective means of organizing lawyers, coordinating litigation campaigns and reshaping the federal judiciary. Producing doubt and destabilizing science in the courtroom is part of this conservative strategy. While judges may have the official power to decide fact and law, the jury is out on whether they can consistently and accurately evaluate science.
The GOP is set on destroying this republic, and reshaping the country into an autocracy. Much like the tactics of Nazism, the RNC has mobilized the hate of the fringe element of our society, through propaganda.
It seems somewhat obvious that The Republican Party is controlling the Supreme Court. If they gain control of the House and Senate, it will mean an end to Our Republic, an end to our freedom, an end to equality for All.
There is only one way to eliminate the threat of the republican party, vote them out of existence, and put their support base back where they belong, on the fringe of our society. The upcoming elections, over the next four years, is about the future or destruction of Our Republic.
For decades, right-wing GOP funders and advocates have invested in institutions and individual researchers that will question scientific consensus and advance unproven theories. The resulting misinformation has distorted discussions of climate change, covid-19 and other issues. Now 3 of these type people sit on the supreme court...