Left and right agree on one thing: The justice system is corrupted by bias

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the other day was asked a question that in an earlier time would have invited civics-class banalities about a nation of laws and the wisdom of the founding fathers.“Do you have confidence in the Supreme Court?” asked CNN’s Anderson Cooper.“No,” responded Pelosi. “I think they have gone rogue. It’s most unfortunate.”

Her comment came a few weeks after a successor, Speaker Mike Johnson, similarly found occasion to expound on the integrity of the judicial system.“Today is a shameful day in American history,” the speaker declared, following Donald Trump’s felony convictions in New York for falsifying records. “This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”Monday marks the final day of the Supreme Court’s term, with a historic ruling on whether Trump is immune from prosecution for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

It’s an apt moment to note a development that has happened in such a steady progression that it can be easy to miss how consequential it is in historical perspective. The country’s left and right flanks — endlessly divided on nearly every big question in national life — have arrived at a striking convergence: Both ends of the political spectrum believe the American justice system is simply not on the level.Partisan combatants, of course, disagree on the details. Different cases leave each side aggrieved.

But the loudness and ideological slant of the arguments tends to obscure a shared belief. The notion that the nation’s legal system, from the Supreme Court down, is hopelessly compromised by bias and scantily clad partisan agendas is now a foundational assumption across wide swaths of both the conservative and progressive movements.This is not the same as believing that courts are inevitably infused with a measure of politics. When in American history has that not been true? At multiple junctures over the past generation — from Bush v. Gore to the overturning of Roe v. Wade — to not believe that would have been downright naïve.