The Supreme Court Has Always Been This Bad From allowing segregation to gutting abortion rights, the court’s reactionary streak runs deep. The Supreme Court in 1904. (Supreme Court of the United States)It would be difficult to overstate the extent to which the American republic’s current set of staggering problems and seemingly intractable crises can and should be blamed on a single institution: the United States Supreme Court. It is terrifying to think that the conservative justices on the court are not yet done with their labors. “Far from being a bulwark against fascism,” Stone presciently wrote, “the court may serve a double function in its rise.