The US Supreme Court is Already Rigging the Next Election

Image of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/via Getty Images)

The US Supreme Court issued a stunning decision on Monday, granting a request from Alabama Republicans to put a lower court ruling on hold. That earlier decision from a three-judge panel in the state found that a newly drawn congressional district map, made by Alabama Republicans, had violated the Voting Rights Act by denying Black voters a new district.

The lower court determined that in order to comply with Civil Rights Law, there should be two districts — rather than just one — in which Black voters are a sizeable portion of the electorate. The federal three-judge panel in Alabama issued a 225-page ruling in January that found plaintiffs are “substantially likely” to prevail on claims that the current districts violate the Voting Rights Act, because the latest Census 2020 data supports the addition of another minority district.

“Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress,” the panel stated. “We find that the plaintiffs will suffer an irreparable harm if they must vote in the 2022 congressional elections based on a redistricting plan that violates federal law.” The congressional map, as previously approved by the state, ultimately preserves a nearly 30-year plan of having a single majority-minority congressional district — which would also be the 7th stronghold in west Alabama.

African-Americans line up to vote outside Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in the presidential election on November 4, 2008, in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham, along with Selma and Montgomery, were touchstones in the civil rights movement where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led massive protests which eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ending voter disfranchisement against African-Americans. Americans are voting in the first presidential election featuring an African-American candidate, (Photo by Mario Tama/via Getty Images)

Yesterday, in a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice Roberts joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent, the US Supreme Court issued a brief order, which included no reasoning, that ultimately announced a lack of conservative, majority support for future voter rights challenges based on claims of race discrimination.

The Supreme Court’s order was provisional, and while it stopped the enforcement of the lower court’s decision, this was only temporary as the case is allowed to move forward. Supreme Court justices said in yesterday’s ruling that they would formally hear Alabama’s appeal of the lower court’s ruling, but they did not say when. Moreover, it is not likely that oral arguments will be set before the next fall term, which means that this latest attempt by Republicans in Alabama to gerrymander another congressional district will succeed before the next Midterm election.

Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule

Image of African American voters, able to vote for the first time in rural Wilcox County, Alabama, at a polling station at The Sugar Shack, after the passage of the federal voting rights law in 1965. This is when Republicans knew they could no longer legitimately win elections.

The timing of this order and the way in which the slim Conservative majority of the Supreme Court issued the ruling is especially suspect given the immediate lack of legal recourse for minority voters in Alabama before the next pivotal election. This is also the first case to reach the Supreme Court that involves the redrawing of political boundaries based on 2020 census results, and this latest precedent could affect future redistricting in other states that have recently had minority population growth.

The Supreme Court said it would hear Alabama’s challenge to the lower court ruling that declared the maps void. That appeal is not likely to be heard until the court’s new term begins in the fall. As a practical matter, the court’s action allows Alabama Republicans to use their map for this year’s elections.

Protestors hold signs against gerrymandering in front of the Supreme Court in March 2019. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/via Getty Images)

This recent Supreme Court decision, which was only possible due to Donald Trump’s placement of three new Justices on the bench, has now ensured that minority voters in Alabama will continue to have disproportionate access to the ballot box for the next election.

While this might seem like a small loss given the decades of Republican dominance in the state, this recent Supreme Court decision has effectively bolstered a Republican strategy to disenfranchise voters who will likely vote against them. Moreover, it establishes a bastardized legal pathway to continue to suppress voters, based on their race, all over the country — likely in bigger districts next time.

Then-President Donald Trump with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as he administers the Constitutional Oath to Amy Coney Barrett on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (Photo by Patrick Semansky/via Getty Images)

Trump’s Supreme Court, brought to you by the hard-working folks at McConnell Cheat ‘em and Scam ‘em, Inc., have now issued a decision that has tipped their hand on what they intend to do, and the consequences will be disastrous. What’s worse — this delay in judicial process is really a delay in judicial justice, one that has been perfectly timed to coincide with the next pivotal election.

Make no mistake, the argument that the US Supreme Court is not a political animal, capable of impartiality and favor, is a relic theory and continues to be mocked each time this slim majority issues another opinion. Perhaps the most dire aspects of all of this are that Republicans, who are in full control of the highest court in the land, are no longer trying to disguise their agenda, and sitting Supreme Court Justices — with lifetime tenure — are not trying to disguise their allegiances.

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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and hosts the live SHERO podcast on Callin. She is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.

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