Justice #Alito’s Latest Opinion Is a Very, Very Bad Sign for #VotingRights
A decision upholding a #NewYork #GOP congressional district could be a prelude to killing the #VotingRightsAct.
#law #SCOTUS #democracy #VRA #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/samuel-alito-opinion-new-york-voting-rights-act-supreme-court/
#SCOTUS on Monday evening overturned a #NewYork state court ruling that found that the Staten Island-based district of #Republican US House Rep. Nicole Malliotakis discriminated against #Black & #Latino voters & needed to be redrawn. The Supreme Court’s intervention preserves a #GOP led seat that would have been likely to shift to #Democrats this November.
#law #democracy #VRA #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
The court’s ruling sets a disturbing #precedent for #VotingRights in several ways. Federal courts are supposed to defer to #state courts on matters of state #law. And #SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled that courts should not change election laws in the middle of an #election season, & in this instance the filing deadline for candidates in #NewYork has already passed.
#law #democracy #VRA #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
In her dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices #KetanjiBrownJackson & Elena #Kagan, Justice Sonia #Sotomayor blasted the court’s conservative majority for using one set of rules to uphold #redistricting maps that benefit #white voters & #Republicans in states like #Texas while using a completely different set of rules to strike down maps that benefit racial “minorities” & #Democrats in places like #NewYork.
#law #SCOTUS #democracy #VRA #ElectionLaw #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
“Time & again, this Court has said that federal courts should not interfere with state-court litigation,” #Sotomayor wrote. “Time & again, this Court has said that federal courts should not meddle with state election laws ahead of an election. Today, the Court says: except for this one, except for this one, & except for this one.”
#law #SCOTUS #democracy #VRA #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
The majority did not explain its reasoning, but most concerning was the concurring opinion by Justice Samuel #Alito, in which he wrote that districts drawn “for the express purpose of ensuring that ‘minority voters’ are able to elect the candidate of their choice” represented “unadorned racial discrimination, an inherently ‘odious’ activity that violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause except in the ‘most extraordinary case.’”
#Alito is essentially saying that districts drawn under the #VotingRightsAct or other federal & state laws to remedy centuries of racial #discrimination are as #racist as the #racism (including the legacy of #slavery & #JimCrow) they were meant to rectify.
#law #SCOTUS #democracy #VRA #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
Court watchers speculate that #Alito, because he has not authored an opinion from the court’s term last October, is writing the majority opinion in a hugely important case the court has yet to rule on concerning the constitutionality of the last remaining section of the #VotingRightsAct. If that’s the case, the #VRA — and by extension, the fate of American #democracy — will be in very, very bad shape.
#law #SCOTUS #ElectionLaw #redistricting #gerrymandering #authoritarianism
The #JohnRoberts court has repeatedly gutted the #VRA & if it were to rule that it is unconstitutional for states to draw districts that allow voters of color to elect their candidates of choice that would essentially spell the death of the country’s most important #CivilRights #law. Based on his opinions in other major voting rights cases & his concurrence in the NY case, #Alito seems certain to kill the VRA outright or narrow it to the point of irrelevancy.
The argument is that it's against the federal Constitution to draw district lines based on race, period.
Doesn't matter WHY one is undertaking such racial gerrymandeing, it's unconstitutional no matter how righteous the motivation might be.
Everything else is pretty consistent considering that stance.
So you've gotten a few things backwards here. The Court is ordering a halt to, not preserving, racial discrimination, and it's ordering it to stop now so that there isn't interference closer to the election.
