On the early evening of February 7, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the decision of a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Merrill v Milligan, 21A375. This is the case over Alabama’s new U.S. House districts. The lower court had said that the Voting Rights Act requires Alabama to draw two U.S. House districts with African-American majorities. The legislature’s plan, enacted late last year, only has one such district. Blacks are 27% of the population of Alabama.
Here is Professor Rick Hasen’s analysis of the decision. His blog post has a link to the various writings of members of the Supreme Court. The vote was 5-4. The three Democratic appointees, plus Chief Justice John Roberts, were in the minority.
It remains true that no petitioning candidate for U.S. House in Alabama could have started to petition until the evening of February 7, because no one could have known what the boundaries would be. If there is any petitioning candidate this year, either independent or minor party, he or she has a strong case that the number of signatures for U.S. House should be substantially reduced this year. Ordinarily these petitions can take approximately 18 months, but this year such petitions must be completed in three months. Therefore, by several precedents in the Eleventh circuit states (Florida, Georgia, and Alabama) the number of signatures should be reduced to approximately one-sixth of the normal. Normally these petitions require approximately 7,000 signatures.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/relatingtoorders/21
Merrill – 3 ops
SB
https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/02/in-5-4-vote-justices-reinstate-alabama-voting-map-despite-lower-courts-ruling-that-it-dilutes-black-votes/
Again, the high court fails to defend political rights.
They did the right thing.
They did not do the right thing. Justice Kavanaugh said that the election is “too close” as a justification for reversing the lower court. That is ridiculous. The election is in November. This is early February. The primary is in late May and it would not have been that difficult to move it to a later date. Some states still have September primaries.
They did the right thing because we need to get rid of federal interference in state elections completely. That means getting rid of the so called voting rights act. I am looking forward to the Supreme Court doing that, hopefully this term.
They also did the right thing because we need to get rid of as many leftist democrats as possible. We need a strong Republican majority in both house’s of congress to make Trump Speaker, impeach and remove Biden and Harris, and restore Trump to the Presidency that was stolen from him by the Democrats and Chinese Communists. Then we can begin to cleanse our nation of all leftists and leftism in all its forms.
The job of a court is to look at the relevant facts, look at the relevant precedents, and the Constitution. It is not the job of the US Supreme Court to “get rid of” any law which has already been held to be constitutional. And the Voting Rights Act, section 2, has been upheld several times by earlier US Supreme Court decisions. The court is not the dictator of the United States, and the judges are suppose to set aside partisan leanings when they rule.
Nick: I think you really mean that they did right thing to dilute the vote of African-American voters. Federal versus State is a smoke screen to promote White Supremacy. Isn’t that what you are honestly happy about?
Abolish ballot qualification petitions. Don’t print any candidate names on the ballot. Return control of the ballot to the voter with an open all write-in ballot.
@RW,
The court issued their ruling a couple of days before the filing deadline, and then had to clarify that their stay of filing did not apply to legislative races. Then they gave the legislature a couple of weeks to draw new boundaries before they brought special masters in to impose new districts.
Congress should have delayed application of the census to apportionment.
Alternatively, they should require congressional districts to have relatively equal numbers of eligible voters and require ongoing updates as is done in Australia. They should also update the 14th Amendment to base apportionment on CVAP, and eliminate birthright citizenship, and provide representation to citizens residing in territories of the United States and overseas, and impose term limits.
They could also radically increase the size of the House of Representatives and require use of proportional representation.
They could also facilitate overseas and out-of-state voting, reducing the long lead time for elections.
They could also require that no primaries be held for Congress, and that if no candidate receives a majority a new trial be held four weeks later.
Richard Winger,
The court can reverse itself. And I believe they can, should and shall reverse the prior rulings which incorrectly upheld the voting rights act as constitutional. Thank God! They will also throw out Roe V Wade, homosexual marriage, and many other bad precedents. Praise Jesus and Praise Trump!
Robert Stock,
Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?
Is Stock really this fucking stupid? Everything he doesn’t like is white supremacy? That’s how commies talk.
Richard Winger must think Brown v. Board of Education was wrong, because it was essentially reversing an earlier court decision.
Stock is a Satanist. Lying is the chief tenet of his religion. Everything he says should be ignored and discounted as a lie.
Tom: The biggest motivation for you and your ilk is Xenophobia. You fear anyone who is not exactly like you.
This irrational fear of “the other” is the foundation of your politics. It contaminates everything you do.
Because of that most of what I say is exposing the systematic White Supremacy that infects so many Conservatives, Libertarians, and Republicans.
All you do is carry water for the CCP.
You’re fired!
Tom,
I don’t know how Richard Winger feels about Brown v Board, but I do think it was wrong. It’s not going to be thrown out yet this year, but we’ll work our way up to it. The VRA is ready for the chopping block, as is Roe, and thank God, Jesus, and Trump for that!
Mr. Libertarian is right. Satan is the father of lies. The truth is the opposite of everything Satanist stock says. Stock is a satanic Soros sock puppet.
Stock,
God made the races separate from each other and put them on different continents for a reason, just like He made man and woman separate with different roles. It is your satanic leftist lies that they should all be blurred and that all Biblical morality and hierarchy should be thrown out. Satan tells us that God does not rule, that the man is not the head of the family, that all races and cultures should be blended, etc. All sinister satanic leftist lies.
There is nothing irrational about wanting to preserve God’s order. It is there for good reason, because our rationality alone is hubris and idiocy and we don’t know everything. Satanic lies about rationality and throwing out God and faith led not to the godless heaven on earth that they promised but the godless hell on earth of communism, and far from being defeated, the commies are gearing up for a mass slaughter this century in the billions followed by a literal hell on earth where Satan rules, all because they’ll have us “progressively” and “rationally” throw out God and God’s rules in the arrogant false belief that we can rule ourselves without God. What we would end up instead is global satanic tyranny far worse than the tyranny we thought we would escape.
What’s really irrational is to embrace this satanic change and suffer again the fates of Sodom, Gomorrah and Babel. That’s what stock and his master Satan want for us.
Motel 6 Boss is right. Stock serves the satanic agenda of the Chinese Communists and their master, Satan. He is fired in the bigger sense – destined for the literal fire of hell, and seeking to bring the rest of us with him. He will tell the Satanic lie that Satan and hell are not real. They are real, and the lie that they are not is itself Satan’s biggest lie.
We can, must, will, and shall defeat everything stock stands for. Every last little bit of it, big and small. To hell with the devil!
Satanism is systemic dark supremacy. It contaminates all of everything stock and all other sinister leftists advocate.
Dark supremacy is the foundation of sinister leftist politics. Look at how they told us that it would be rational to have desegregation, end school prayer, allow pornography and easy divorce and what did it lead to? Massive increases in crime, multigenerational welfare dependency, drug abuse, broken families, venereal disease…yes, we had all those things before, but they went way, way up because we listened to the “rational” sinister leftists instead of following God’s word and teaching it to our children.
Stock has no clue what white supremacy or xenophobia even is. Not surprised since all he does is spread lies and communism. No wonder he is constantly ridiculed.
Stock and his hero Biden have so much in common: old, senile, frequently soil themselves, lazy, and have anger issues. Do you have a crackhead corrupt son too?
Permitting states to elect Reps at-large with ranked choice voting would allow voters to create “districts” with their own votes.
No need for frequent redistricting, pseudo-independent commissions, and tiresome, endless court cases.
There’s nothing wrong with the districts drawn by the legislature.