More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. She has championed for reproductive freedom (Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson dissent) and LGBTQ+ rights (Obergefell v. Hodges majority).
“A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not.”
“I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too.”
“Our ability to end a pregnancy with just a few pills—safely, privately, at home and without shame—was too much for them to take.”
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check.”
“Birth control really screws up female brains.”
A collection of this year’s most inspiring and infuriating things said by and about women.
“I’m here to stand up for my kid,” Brian Williams told me outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 4. Williams and his wife Samantha have been fighting for their daughter—known as L.W. in the legal papers the ACLU filed to challenge Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors—for years.
Though difficult to sit through, the two-plus hours of argument in United States v. Skrmetti—a challenge by trans youth, their families, the ACLU, Lambda Legal and the Biden administration to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors—was a nearly perfect distillation of this moment in our gender politics.
Come Jan. 3, 2025, both the Senate and the House will be in Republican hands. A few weeks later, on Jan. 20, Donald Trump will return to the White House. With a slim Democratic majority in the Senate and a Republican House, the likelihood Democrats could make headway on judicial ethics over the last four years was never high. It’s now nil. The need for reform, however, is greater than ever—as is public support for it.
Power will shift in January, but conversation about the necessity of and path to judicial reform as a way of laying the legislative groundwork must continue.
The Supreme Court’s latest term—with blockbuster decisions on abortion, the Second Amendment, presidential immunity and more—highlights a looming crisis of legitimacy.
(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)
One of the Court’s most significant decisions of 2024 was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In a reversal of 40 years of precedent, courts—not agencies—will have the last word on interpreting federal law.
In her Loper dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote: “In every sphere of current or future federal regulation, expect courts from now on to play a commanding role.” Kagan’s dissent raises the specter of judges across the country—not doctors or scientists or educators, nor even politicians, who at least must answer to the public—playing a “commanding role” in reproductive rights policy.
The Supreme Court majority’s extreme belief in Trump v. U.S. that our president is above the law is anathema to the history of our nation.
In almost every case, the dissenting justices write, “I respectfully dissent,” but both Sotomayor and Jackson omit the “respectfully” in their dissents in Trump v. U.S. There is little to cling to in this decision. It is as un-American as can be.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for all “official acts” he took while in office. The case, which began last year, is related to charges against the former president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor concluded in a scathing dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Read more of our favorite takes from her dissent.
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in in this biweekly round-up.
This week: Senate fails to pass landmark voting rights legislation; the 49th (and last?) anniversary of Roe v. Wade; OPM raises minimum wage for federal employees to $15 per hour; Minneapolis City Council elects Andrea Jenkins as its first Black, transgender woman president; D.C. mothers eligible for $900 in monthly assistance; Michaela Jaé Rodriguez is first transgender actor to win a Golden Globe; women patients see significantly better outcomes with female surgeons; and more.
Feminists and abortion advocates went into Wednesday’s oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization with a sense of dread and foreboding at the potential loss of Roe.
Despite a dismal outlook from experts, the pro-abortion Supreme Court justices put up a good fight. Justice Sonia Sotomayor in particular had several remarkable standout moments. Through quick quips and accessible language steeped in facts and research, she repeatedly reminded us why she’s known as “the people’s justice.”
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in in this biweekly round-up.
This week: COVID-19 pandemic reaches death toll of 5 million globally; House passes $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill; State Dept. issues first passport with “X” gender marker; Michelle Wu is first woman of color elected Boston mayor; and more.