Cartoon by Ed Wexler. Sree’s newsletter is produced with Zach Peterson (@zachprague), with the Digimentors Tech Tip from Robert S. Anthony (@newyorkbob). Many thanks to our sponsor, Armory Square Ventures. Cartoon licensed via Cagle Cartoons.
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🤖 I’m now offering workshops about AI, ChatGPT, etc. They’re 20 minutes to 3 hours long, remote or in-person. No audience is too big or too small. If you know of any opportunities to present these (customized for businesses, nonprofits, schools, etc), LMK: sree@digimentors.group. Here’s the brochure to my non-scary guide to AI: http://bit.ly/sreeai2023
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IF JANE MAYER IS WORKING ON A BOOK ABOUT YOU, things are not good. Jane Mayer is writing a book about the U.S. Supreme Court.
With its recent decisions on LGTBQ+ issues, affirmative action, and student loan forgiveness (to name only a few), it’s not hard to see why people are angry. Add to the mix the reporting from ProPublica and others on what can only be described as outright corruption from justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh, and it’s safe to say the court is in crisis (and don’t forget the questionable access provided by the Supreme Court Historical Society).
Five of the sitting justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by presidents who did not win the popular vote. And, in the process, the court has lost its legitimacy. Don’t just take my word for it as you might think I’m an alarmist. Here’s a thoughtful, calm person instead.
The Political Scene, a podcast from The New Yorker, discussed the crisis expertly this week. Evan Osnos, Susan Glasser, and Mayer lay it out quite clearly — it’s not just a lack of decorum, or the erosion of it. The justices are having it out in the footnotes of decisions, reflecting a fissure on the court that perfectly embodies our national politics.
The Dark Money Court, as Mayer calls it in the podcast, is a moniker that could stick. Thomas has, for decades, traveled the world on the dime (and private jet) of billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, and that’s just what reports have been able to find out so far. ProPublica’s reporting on this has been absolutely top-notch, and I have yet to see any pushback as to the actual facts laid out, including from Thomas himself. His statement in response to the reports was a weak-kneed version of “my lawyers said I was in the clear, so I didn’t disclose what amounts to tens of millions of dollars worth of gifts,” and was promptly refuted.
We need to stop referring to the court’s six members appointed by Republican presidents as “conservative-leaning,” as one international media outlet described them. This is not a conservative court by any measure — it’s an activist, extreme-right-wing court that is following a decades-long playbook laid out by a small group of powerful, extremist donors. Read “Dark Money” and get to know the names in the book, because they will be coming back around again and again.
The 303 Creative case, which had to with a web designer refusing to build a wedding website for same-sex couples, dealt with a case that didn’t even exist. That’s right, the subject of the case was actually “flabbergasted” to see his name on the docket. He’s not gay, has never had an interest in building a website for a same-sex marriage, and is actually a web designer himself. That the case even made it to the high court in first place borders on the absurd, which says nothing of the court’s 6-3 decision to uphold someone’s rights to discriminate even in made-up situations.
The best discussion I listened to on this case (and the others), was on Slate’s Amicus podcast with Dalia Lithwick. The whole thing is completely ridiculous — which was pointed out by the three dissenting liberal justices on the court — and Lithwick’s discussion with Mark Joseph Stern is illuminating and very educational, especially for more casual Supreme Court watchers.
As with almost all things legal, I turned to my friend and Drexel Law Professor Anil Kalhan. I asked him to tell me why the Asian Americans and Indian Americans who are cheering the decision are wrong. He wrote back:
Indian Americans should not find much to celebrate in these decisions. Simply as a matter of legal craft, the majority’s decree curtailing race-conscious admissions leaves an enormous amount to be desired. As Justices Sotomayor and Jackson discuss at length in their dissenting opinions, the majority’s decision bulldozed through decades’ worth of long-settled legal precedent and applicable constitutional principles, and wholly disregarded the actual facts of these cases. (After hearing detailed evidence during a fifteen-day trial, including statistical experts, the district court concluded that Harvard did not utilize racial quotas or engage in racial balancing, and that its admissions process did not intentionally discriminate against Asian American applicants.) In addition, the wildly revisionist accounts in the Court’s majority and concurring opinions of the place of race and racism in U.S. history and contemporary society are painful to read. Some of the justices’ billionaire patrons will cheer, but the decision will almost certainly deepen a legitimacy crisis that the Court has created for itself in recent years.
The white conservative activist behind these lawsuits, Edward Blum, has been on a broader crusade for decades to roll back the legacy of the civil rights movement, which of course is a legacy that has tremendously benefited Indian Americans and other Asian Americans. After leading a successful campaign to gut the Voting Rights Act (which culminated in the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder) Blum found less success when he turned to bringing lawsuits on behalf of white plaintiffs to challenge race-conscious admissions policies. So rather cynically, he shifted gears and sought to recruit Asian Americans as pawns—at one point candidly stating “I needed Asian plaintiffs” to try to change the narrative from one of white conservative backlash and grievance against civil rights to one instead alleging discrimination against Asian Americans.
Asian American applicants have certainly faced discrimination in admissions processes at various points in time, as in other aspects of life. But the evidence that race-conscious admissions policies have been the source of any such discrimination has always been dubious, and the white conservative activists who have challenged race-conscious admissions policies have never been interested in broadly ensuring fairness to Indian Americans or other Asian Americans in admissions. Rather, their sole aim has been to eliminate diversity as a fundamental value in education altogether and to prevent colleges and universities from using race in a limited manner to pursue that objective.
But promoting diversity in education is valuable to the health of a multiracial, pluralist democracy in a multitude of ways—to the benefit of Indian Americans no less than any other Americans. (Tellingly, even Chief Justice Roberts felt the need to give lip service to the value of diversity in his majority opinion.) Research also indicates that race-conscious admissions practices in fact have contributed to higher admissions rates for Asian American applicants, and that their elimination would primarily benefit white applicants and create additional barriers for many Asian American applicants.
The Supreme Court’s decision won’t be the last word on diversity and race-conscious admissions in higher education, any more than its decree overruling Roe v. Wade will end efforts to advance the protection of reproductive rights. But if the likes of Edward Blum ultimately were to succeed in their goal of eliminating diversity as a fundamental educational value altogether, it won’t be to the benefit of Indian Americans and other Asian Americans.
Let’s highlight that in case you missed it: …race-conscious admissions practices in fact have contributed to higher admissions rates for Asian American applicants, and that their elimination would primarily benefit white applicants and create additional barriers for many Asian American applicants.
“Judges should not legislate from the bench” has long been the mantra from conservatives who have sought solely to pack courts with judges who are put in positions to do just that. Now, the majority of justices on the court are right-wing corporatists who are bent on remaking decades of slow, steady progress made on the rights of all Americans, many of whom happen to not be straight white males.
The consequences are becoming all too visible and all too real.
⚒️ NEW: Digimentors Tools Kit:People are always asking me for recommendations for gadgets, gizmos, websites, etc. So my Digimentors team has created a tools kit we will keep updating. Take a look!
DIGIMENTORS TECH TIP: Quality Sleep Gets Boost from AI in Bryte Balance Smart Bed
By Robert S. Anthony Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.
What would you pay for a good night’s sleep? For some people, like surgeons, airline pilots and professional athletes, sleepless nights can turn into dangerous workdays and thus solid sleep is a must. High-tech beds have been with us for years, but one new entry reaches into the digital cloud for more than just counting sheep.
The Bryte Balance smart bed incorporates 90 “intelligent cushions” which, once programmed with a mobile app, constantly adjusts the bed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) as the user sleeps. The “intelligent mattress” isn’t cheap, however, starting at $6,299, and is marketed as much to hotels and spas as it is to consumers.
Unlike less-expensive smart beds which are set once before the user goes to sleep, the Bryte Balance has multiple sensors which monitor nighttime movements and upload sleep-quality data to Bryte’s servers where it is analyzed, explained Chief Business Officer Francisco Levine at a recent New York wellness and travel event organized by Organic Spa Media.
With the help of AI, the bed downloads instructions from the cloud and the smart cushions make gentle adjustments to maintain proper support and quality sleep, said Levine. He noted that the bed could also be used alone with the app without the cloud connection.
The gentle bed movements coordinate with the company’s Somnify audio experience, which offers a choice of soothing sounds, like gentle rain and distant thunder, that help the user fall asleep.
Users can set an “alarm” which slowly rocks the sleeper awake at the appointed time—a feature that could be a godsend for those who regularly wake up to the unscheduled thumps of cats or small children. The smart cushions can wake a sleeper on one side of the bed without disturbing the other, according to the company.
In a short, but very restful test at the press event, the Bryte Balance offered a soothing, silent massage which felt smooth and even—not like a cluster of poking fingers. The sleep-friendly audio was useful and the smart cushions worked in unison and never lost support.
Levine noted that if you stay at a hotel with a Bryte smart bed and configure it to your liking, the next time you stay at a hotel with a Bryte bed you can program it with your saved personalized settings from the Bryte app. He noted that Bryte beds are already available in hotels in New York, Miami, San Francisco and Chicago.
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And don’t forget… 🤖 I’m now offering workshops about AI, ChatGPT, etc. They’re 20 minutes to 3 hours long, remote or in-person. No audience is too big or too small. If you know of any opportunities to present these (customized for businesses, nonprofits, schools, etc), LMK: sree@digimentors.group. Here’s the brochure to my non-scary guide to AI: http://bit.ly/sreeai2023
Supreme Court, electoral college . . . there's much amiss in our democracy today.