The politicization of the Supreme Court is nothing new given its slow but steady drift from neutral arbitrator to a Republican emergency kill switch for any law that doesn’t align with the party platform.

The Supreme Court was initially imagined as an apolitical organization with political impunity and thus the ability to make independent decisions.

The court’s ability to make independent decisions not steeped in party ideology was severely weakened as the political climate outside meant that nominations to the court were increasingly scrutinized to glean insights from the potential justices.

We learned in the aftermath of the overturn of Roe, that whatever justices say during the confirmation process is nothing more than a job interview and accountability is nonexistent.

When confronted about their statements during their confirmation hearings, legal scholars argue that the justices don’t truly answer questions regarding how they are going to rule due to their consistent vagueness.

In recent years the court has taken numerous steps in the wrong direction and against the American people.

During the Obama years, then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to provide Republican votes to move forward with Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court due to the imminent presidential election.

Today, Merrick Garland is the United States Attorney General but his absence on the court is still felt.

During Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, he was able to fill three vacancies on the Supreme Court including the one that Garland was nominated for during Obama’s tenure.

His three appointments to the nation’s highest court reshaped the court in an even more extreme conservative image.

The Ideologues on the court are no longer outnumbered by sane Americans hoping to interpret the law on sound and reasonable grounds which has led to numerous disappointing and widely impactful decisions from the court this session.

The most well-known decision this session is the overturn of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey which constituted the foundation of the right of reproductive health care in the United States.

That decision by a 6-3 conservative court is not likely to be decided differently anytime soon due to the lifetime appointments of Justices.

Roe and Casey were not the only impactful decisions to be decided by this court that further cemented its decline into just another partisan political institution, but they are the headliners.

The Supreme Court this session also gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement powers on power plants emitting large amounts of emissions among other decisions that will impact us all for years to come.

The court also hinted that it may come after additional personal freedoms, including interracial marriage, same-sex marriage and contraception.

How far must the court go before we decide that it has gone too far? Will we be too late to save our nation’s highest court?

Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication senior from Baton Rouge