John Roberts Has Built the Most Political Court in Modern History — and Today Proved It Three Times Over
A trio of rulings reveals a Court more interested in protecting power than principle — even when it occasionally rules against the President
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 30, 2026) — Today, the Supreme Court issued its final three decisions of the term: a 6-3 ruling striking down federal limits on coordinated campaign spending by political parties, a 6-3 decision upholding state bans on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports, and a 5-4 ruling rejecting the administration's executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Stasha M. Rhodes, Executive Director of United for Democracy, issued the following statement:
"Don't be fooled by the scorecard. This Court is not an independent umpire calling balls and strikes. It is, under Chief Justice John Roberts, the most political institution in the country — and today's three rulings prove it, including the one that went against the President.
"Start with what actually changes the balance of power in this country: campaign finance. Political parties can now spend unlimited amounts in direct coordination with the candidates they support. That ruling guts fifty years of protection against quid pro quo corruption, just months before the midterms. It is the single biggest gift this Court could hand to the wealthy donors and dark money interests who built its majority in the first place, and it will shape elections for a generation.
"Then there's the transgender athletes ruling. Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox asked for the same thing every kid wants: to play on a team with their friends. The Court said no. We are not interested in pretending this is a close call about fairness in sports — it is one more example of this Court reaching for the most politically charged, MAGA-coded culture war fight available and delivering exactly the outcome the far right wanted.
"And then there's birthright citizenship — the ruling that will get the most relief, and rightly so. But notice the margin: 5-4. Not a resounding defense of a constitutional principle that has been settled law for over a century. A single vote. If just one more justice had sided with the administration, more than 200,000 children born in this country every year would have been stripped of the citizenship the 14th Amendment has guaranteed them since 1868. That is how fragile this Court has made one of the most basic guarantees of American citizenship, and that fragility should terrify you as much as it relieves you.
And let's be honest about what that ruling is doing in the same news cycle as the other two. This Court knows how to manage its own coverage. A win on a Trump policy that was always going to lose gives this Court the appearance of independence and balance. It is not independence. It is a release valve, just enough distance from the President to maintain the illusion that this Court is not what we all know it to be.
"Make no mistake: this is not a court that is occasionally adversarial to MAGA. This Court has been one of the central enablers of the MAGA movement's project, reshaping the rules of money in politics to entrench the party currently captured by it, and reaching for the most politically potent culture war case on its docket to deliver a win the movement wanted. One ruling against a single executive order does not undo that role. It obscures it.
"We are looking at the pattern. A Court that hands political parties a blank check. A Court that reaches for the easiest culture war target. A Court that occasionally tosses the President a loss to maintain the appearance of balance while doing far more lasting damage elsewhere. That is not a neutral institution interpreting the law. That is a political machine — and it is time we stopped talking about it as anything else.
"The American people need a Supreme Court that is structurally reformed and genuinely accountable, not one that occasionally rules the right way while reshaping the rest of the system to serve the powerful. We are not going to stop demanding that."
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United for Democracy (UFD) is a diverse and growing coalition of 160 grassroots organizations, labor unions, and advocates for reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, the environment, workers’ rights and more, all representing tens of millions of Americans. The campaign launched to educate Americans about the impact today’s Supreme Court is having on their lives, freedoms, and democracy — and call on Congress to rein in its unchecked powers.
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Contact: Jeannette O’Connor, press@unitedfordemocracy.org