Two new articles by Heike Paul analyze the more recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court with a special view to abortion rights but also concerning climate protection and the right to carry guns. In (1) "Aus dem Report der Magd: In real life - die retroptopischen Staaten von Amerika" ('From The Handmaid's Tale: In real life - the retrotopic States of America'), published in Der Hauptstadtbrief (July 23, 2022), Heike Paul delineates how Donald Trump's nominations to the Supreme Court shape current American politics, threatening to propel it backwards in time, providing frighteningly close similarities to what Margaret Atwood had imagined in her novel The Handmaid's Tale. Consequently, those recent events are analyzed as part of a general trend in the United States in terms of Zygmunt Bauman's notion of retropy, i.e. a backward-looking from of utopia. In a similar way, (2) "Quo Vadis, USA? Die umstrittenen Entscheidungen des Supreme Courts" ('Where are you going, USA? The controversial decisions of the Supreme Court') in Einsichten + Perspektiven: Bayerische Zeitschrift für Politik und Geschichte (02/2022) comments on the conservative turn within the Supreme Court following the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices during the Trump administration.
To access the publications, see (1) the homepage of Der Hauptstadtbrief and (2) Einsichten + Perspektiven on the homepage of the Bayerische Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung.
