Honorable Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in the US is split 5:4 along political lines with conservatives in the majority. So partisan are the judges that Sandra Day O'Connor retired during the Bush presidency so that he could appoint another conservative in her place. Chief Justice William Rehnquist also died during the Bush years. Now within the past one week the Court has shown that it is not swayed by political considerations alone. First the Court struck down 3 parts of the Arizona Immigration Law saying that immigration is a federal matter therefore the state could not legislate on it. While upholding the right of police officers to check the immigration status of someone stopped for a separate offence, say speeding, the Court ruled that state officials cannot arrest someone without a warrant just because they have probable cause to believe that the person is an illegal immigrant. Then the Court upheld the Affordable Healthcare Act which is also known as Obamacare and is hated by conservatives, especially the part known as the " individual mandate " which seeks to penalize people for opting not to sign on for health insurance. Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by Bush, voted with the 4 liberal judges to uphold the law causing fury among conservatives who see this as a betrayal. While President Obama, who used to teach law at Harvard, reasoned that a penalty is not a tax Justice Roberts ruled that the penalty is a tax and since the Congress is empowered to levy taxes the Act was legal. In 1961 President Kennedy passed Affirmative Action by executive order which made it illegal to discriminate on grounds of color or gender. This was meant to encourage positive action by universities and employers to give more opportunities to African Americans. Universities were operating a points system for admission where being black earned you extra points. This was seen as reverse discrimination by some and struck down by the Supreme Court in 2003 saying that while taking race as a factor for admission into college was allowed a strict point system was unconstitutional. Consider the Supreme Court in India which has repeatedly upheld the 50% " reservation " for lower caste people who can gain admission into prestigious colleges with much lower marks. This was justified by the specious argument that lower castes were treated badly by upper castes in the past so it was the turn of the upper castes to suffer. A sort of institutionalised revenge. But surely lower castes were not treated as badly as blacks in the US who were captured in Africa, transported in chains in holds of ships where many died due to suffocation and then sold to whites who treated them worse than animals. However, judges also need a sinecure after retirement. Justice Ahmadi, of Union Carbide fame, was Chairman of Bhopal Memorial Trust Hospital built for the victims of the gas poisoning and Justice Balakrishnan is Chairman of National Human Rights Commission. Ironic what?