The Supreme Court knocked down Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional map in a shocking 5-4 decision Thursday, preserving a key section of the Voting Rights Act.
University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck, author of a book on the Supreme Court, “The Shadow Docket,” offers up a stinging reminder of how the Court has damaged voting rights and helped Republicans in the process:
“If you assume that additional majority-minority districts in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, & 1–2 other states would’ve been safe Democratic seats, then today’s #SCOTUS ruling strongly suggests that the Court’s 2022 shadow docket stays [decisions/rulings] wrongly gave Republicans control of the House.”
Professor of law Anthony Michael Kreis, pointing to Vladeck’s remarks, adds: “there’s a House majority built on discriminatory lawlessness.”
We must vacate and redo all these elections immediately!
Someone needs to file a lawsuit today.
The continued abuse of emergency or summary procedures AKA the ‘Shadow Docket’ by the conservative SCOTUS majority appears to be unstoppable even as it becomes more clear how incredibly damaging to democratic governance it can be.
Highly recommend @steve_vladeck's book as it explains how these procedural machinations (which also happened in TX abortion litigation) effectively allows for substantive changes in the law without accountability. ...
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) June 8, 2023
Professor of law Anthony Michael Kreis, pointing to Vladeck’s remarks, adds: “there’s a House majority built on discriminatory lawlessness.”
Why does “discriminatory lawlessness” not apply to redistricting based on party affiliation?
The press tilting in a different direction** might have made a difference as well…
** Like BALANCED
the decision was all the more surprising given that a majority of justices had let the map stand and be used for the 2022 midterms
It’s june 2023. Plenty of time for alabamistan to get its shit together and come back to the court with a gerrymander supported by better arguments. The supreme court won’t shadow docket delay that one past the 2024 election.
They’ve already voted on a bunch of cases including Moore; the opinion just isn’t fully written yet so we don’t know what the decision is. The justices likely do. If I knew that Moore was going to validate the independent state legislature theory and I were Kavanaugh, I might just do what he did today to provide some anticipatory cover. But if I knew that and I were Thomas, I might not have been so angry in my dissent. So who knows?
Clarence was angry in his dissent because he believes he is above other Americans.
Doesn’t even have to come back with a better gerrymander. They could come back with a worse gerrymander, or there could be – gasp! – litigation against whatever maps ostensibly fixed things, and then the court could just say “Well, gee, we guess that unconstitutional map has to stay in place until everything is completely settled.” And in six months the primaries will begin, so obviously you can’t change any maps in an election year 
Well, I am assuming that in order to comply with today’s decision, alabamistan is required to redraw their districts before 2024.
And what happens to them if they don’t? Maybe Clarence will send them a sternly worded email.
Well, most of the alabamistan critters are fat dumb&happy incumbents, who really, really don’t want to risk getting last-minute redistricted out of their seats or forced to run against each other, as both happened this recent cycle in NY after NY utterly botched their redistricting by getting too greedy. Also, the House is the “sole judge” of its members qualifications, and if it flips D the House could have pretext to refuse to seat all AL critters and send them back for a special election after a post-2024 redistricting.
Just saying, alabamistan has incentives to not get too cute.
Current serious headline above the fold news on cnn dot com…
Initially i read it as “Horseshit loafers”
That’s what they look like to me.
There’s serious news from the Supreme Court and all the formerly well thought of cnn can offer are fancy overly expensive shoes as news. This is why they have sunk to supermarket tabloid status because of Mr Licht. Articles on shoes is not journalism, it’s fashion. Now fashion has its place…but not on the top of the page.
Remember Cindy Klose from CNN 40 years or so ago? I’d like to hear her opinion.
Speaking of the biermeister … here’s a great read that has it all: human trafficking, slavery, Washington elites, Kavanaugh representing scum pro bono — his mom even makes an appearance — and a Santos-paling Brazilian theme.
Enjoy the read. It’s a gifted link; no paywall.