Legal Features
The Rutherford Institute’s report, "Justice Is Not Neutral"
In light of major changes taking place at the U.S. Supreme Court, The Rutherford Institute has released a new report that examines the significance of the Court’s most critical rulings handed down during its 2017-2018 term. “Justice Is Not Neutral” provides a detailed analysis of some the most critical rulings handed down within the past year, especially as they relate to First and Fourth Amendment rights.
“What a difference nine people can make. Given the turbulence of our age, with its police overreach, military training drills on American soil, domestic surveillance, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, wrongful convictions, profit-driven prisons, and corporate corruption, the need for a guardian of the people’s rights has never been greater,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “America’s founders intended the courts within the American judicial system to serve as Courts of Justice. What we have been saddled with, however, are Courts of Order. This is true at all levels of the judiciary, but especially so in the highest court of the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, which is seemingly more concerned with establishing order and protecting government interests than with upholding the rights of the people enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.”
“Justice Is Not Neutral” examines the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s most consequential rulings from its 2017-18 term, especially as they relate to Speech, Religious Liberty and the First Amendment, Police Misconduct, Privacy and the Fourth Amendment, Immigration and the Power of the Presidency, States’ Rights, Voters’ Rights and Gerrymandering, and Commerce. As Whitehead points out in his introduction to the report, “We have come a long way from Justice William O. Douglas’ view that the Constitution—and, in turn, the Courts—are supposed to take the government off the backs of the people. For most Americans, justice remains out of reach, while the courts themselves remain out of sync with the spirit of the Constitution.”
