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Alabama Redistricting Mid-Primary: SCOTUS Rewrites a Live Election
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Supreme Court just changed Alabama's congressional map while a primary election is actively underway, forcing 600,000 voter registrations to be updated under emergency deadlines. Today's briefing covers the ruling, a scathing 17-page dissent, the near-collapse of Section 2 VRA protections, and major SCOTUS decisions still to come.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A federal election is actively underway in Alabama, and the Supreme Court just changed the map. That's not a metaphor.
Three justices didn't let that pass quietly. Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson filed a seventeen-page dissent accusing the majority of abandoning democratic values and rewarding what they called Alabama's deliberate gamesmanship.
The signal here extends beyond Alabama. This decision follows a Louisiana redistricting ruling and together they point toward a single conclusion: Section Two of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting changes with discriminatory intent or effect, is now nearly impossible to invoke.
The Court also issued two separate rulings on June eighth that went in favor of federal regulators. Both decisions added clarity on agency authority after a period in which the Court had signaled skepticism toward administrative power.
Before the Court breaks for recess, several consequential decisions are still outstanding. Birthright citizenship, immigration enforcement, and the president's power to fire federal officials are all pending.
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