President Joe Biden expressed his “deep disappointment” with the Supreme Court’s major voting rights case decision Thursday, in which the six conservative justices further weakened the Voting Rights Act.
So now comes the grand re-build to try, with S1 and the John Lewis bill, to repair the damage inflicted by the court.
But let’s suggest for a moment that both bills pass. Pass in their current forms.
Knowing what they know about the court’s leaning, what’s to say the GQP doesn’t start litigation that goes all the way to SCOTUS and SCOTUS deems these bills unconstitutional, or whatever, and further de-fangs voting rights in the nation? The court isn’t subject to voting laws, but their benefactors are.
I don’t see any clear way to getting voting rights back to where they were or should be, with the current court makeup and the amount of money the GQP is pouring into ensuring their rule for generations to come.
“The power to eliminate the [filibuster] lays with the only current Democratic holdouts, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who have both recently reaffirmed their loyalty to the measure, which acts as a virtual minority veto.”
Munchkin and Cinema: “Sure, sure, all those people in the burning building will die if we don’t get them out – but only Democratic firefighters are brave enough to rush into the flames and smoke – and that would be ‘partisan’. Better to let them all die unless we come up with a ‘bipartisan’ rescue squad.”
(“After all, if we eliminate the filibuster, then some future, hypothetical GOP majority might – possibly, conceivably, maybe – do something ‘bad’ that we can’t even realistically point to, because we’re just speculatively self-pleasuring with our obstinance.”)
This will increase the pressure to pass S1.
Pressure from outside the BeltWay
The court didn’t do it alone. It’s only after the hammer-and-chisel crew gives them something to chip away on that they go to work with their rasps and sandpaper and Shinola.
It’s also a given that Rethugliklans will start litigating anew peoples’ right to vote if both bills pass. It’s their only other chance (outside of gerrymandering) to win anything anymore with even a veneer of legitimacy.
Some clever person will figure out that the 13th amendment is invalid because several of the States needed to approve it were occupied States under Reconstruction at the time, so that’s a ton of people who shouldn’t even be free, let alone voting.
And 5 Supremes will be fine with that argument.
Honorary Co-Presidents of the Surfside HOA Board
O bazinga!
With similar results
I saw the Thomas SCOTUS Hearings in the early 1990s, and it’s my belief that, after Thomas was Approved, he had a huge grudge.
I know a little about his biography.
“The Court’s decision, harmful as it is, does not limit Congress’ ability to repair the damage done today,” Biden writes.
My prediction is if Congress does manage to pass S1 and or S4, this Republican and not conservative Supreme Court will find it or them unconstitutional or otherwise severely limit their application.
That is the real problem that needs to be fixed, unfixed in my view, is the Supreme Court.
Speaking of corrupt justices, any update on brett kavanaugh debt investigation?
That’s not the only update we need to focus on with Kav…
I see the SC decided to re-affirm the Dred Scott decision.
It depends on what the message is. If it’s overemphasizing people of color, it’s not going to get far. And I certainly don’t believe that Dems have the messaging chops to make a cutthroat ad campaign to address it.
Fuck Joe Manchin.
This is for the lifeblood of the Democratic Party: a Diverse America. An overused metaphor is diversity combining like an alloy.
Whether that is suitable or not, the fact remains that the Democratic Coalition had better get cracking…all components of the coalition
And, w/r/t messaging, survival of the Republic has got to be a part of that message
The next target, should either one or both bills pass, is judicial reform.
I suspect, with voter suppression and infrastructure, this session of Congress has enough on its plate.
Judicial reform won’t happen in this session.
Get rid of the filibuster, and then expand the Court to 15. And bring in two new states: Douglass Commonwealth and Puerto Rico.
Without this, I seriously fear that we will not have free elections in '22 and '24–and that American democracy will be dead.