(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Trump-packed Supreme Court appears ready to sweep away remnants of Voting Rights Act [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-10-05
The U.S. Supreme Court’s extremist right-wing majority might be just the tiniest bit chastened by the overwhelming condemnation it has received since June, when it wrapped a session that bulldozed through decades of precedent, separation of powers, the church/state firewall, and so much else. The second day of the new term was devoted to another challenge to the Voting Rights Act from the state of Alabama in which it sounded like the ringleader of the extremists, Justice Samuel Alito, was searching for a scalpel rather than a chainsaw to carve out the last significant protection under the law.
The state of Alabama asked the court to overthrow the decision by a three-judge district court panel that said the state had to redraw the Republican legislature’s electoral map. The court had already stayed that lower court ruling, so this fall’s election will be held under the Republicans’ redistricting map that creates a single congressional district (out of seven) in which Black voters are concentrated, despite the fact that the state’s population is 27% Black. The map diluted the Black population in the remaining six districts at levels too small to form a majority. Black voters challenged that map under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits election practices that result in denying or abridging the right to vote based on race.
Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour argued for the state, putting forward a variation of the old Stephen Colbert joke about not being a racist because he doesn’t even see race, “not even my own.” The state was simply taking a “race-blind” approach to redistricting, LaCour argued, and because it used race-neutral criteria, it is “equally open” to all voters, which means it doesn’t violate Section 2 at all.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/5/2127208/-Trump-packed-Supreme-Court-appears-ready-to-sweep-away-remnants-of-Voting-Rights-Act
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
