Supreme Court - Obama Presidency Oral History

Among the first landmark Supreme Court cases of the Obama years was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The commission had ruled that a documentary produced by Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit organization, violated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and could not be distributed. But in a 5-4 decision in favor of Citizens United, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that restrictions on political spending by corporations violated First Amendment free speech protections, severely limiting Congress’ ability to regulate campaign finance. In interviews, narrators reflect on the decision, and outline its impact on campaigns and elections in the United States. 

Reading his sharply-critical dissenting opinion in Citizens United from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens occasionally stumbled over his words, which he took as a sign that, then nearing his ninetieth birthday, it was time for him to retire. In April 2010, he informed Obama of his intention to retire at the conclusion of the year’s term, and shortly after, Obama nominated Elena Kagan, his solicitor general and the former dean of Harvard Law School, to replace Stevens. Kagan was confirmed by the Senate in August, and narrators involved in the selection process recount her nomination and confirmation, and discuss criticism of her nomination from the political left of the Democratic Party. 

Among cases before the court, the administration was particularly preoccupied with legal challenges to its marquee healthcare legislation, the Affordable Care Act, which the Supreme Court heard on multiple occasions. The court upheld the constitutionality of key ACA provisions in 2012 and 2015, but weakened aspects of the bill by limiting the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, and striking down the “contraceptive mandate” that had been issued as an agency rule in the ACA implementation process, and required employers to cover certain types of reproductive healthcare. Narrators discuss these decisions in detail on the Healthcare Reform topic page.

In 2013, three years after Citizens United, the court issued another ruling that reshaped election law in the United States. In Shelby County v. Holder, the court’s five conservative justices struck down a pillar of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The decision ruled that the formula used to identify jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination in voting was unconstitutional, dramatically limiting the capacity of the federal government to protect citizens from discriminatory laws and procedures. In project interviews, narrators speak widely about the decision, and describe the restrictive voting laws it enabled. 

While Shelby County was roundly condemned by civil rights activists, the court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges expanded civic equality in the United States by extending the right to marry to same-sex couples. Marriage equality was a major victory for the LGBTQ-rights movement, and the decision is discussed in detail on the LGBTQ Policy topic page.

The final vacancy of Obama’s presidency was created by the surprise death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016. While Sotomayor and Kagan had replaced justices from the court's liberal wing, leaving the court's longstanding 5-4 conservative majority unchanged, Scalia's death created the opportunity for a significant realignment. Obama nominated Merrick Garland, then the chief judge of the DC circuit, to fill Scalia’s empty seat on March 16, but the Republican majority in the Senate categorically refused to consider him, citing the proximity of the upcoming presidential election. In project interviews, narrators recount Garland’s nomination, and situate the unprecedented opposition to it in the historical evolution of the Republican Party. 

The Obama Presidency Oral History’s Supreme Court coverage overlaps and intersects with several other topic areas in the collection, including Healthcare, Elections and Campaigns, LGBTQ Policy, Immigration, and Republican Opposition.