Surprise, Surprise!
Thursday: What a good day for the rule of law!
Issue #337: Government June 9, 2023
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Surprise Ruling on Voting Rights by the SCOTUS
The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA)was one of the most important civil rights laws passed in American History. The VRA was designed to ensure that all citizens had the right to vote, regardless of their race, color, or national origin, and required states with a history of voter suppression to pass compliance requirements before making any changes to their voting procedures.
This process, known as preclearance, was designed to prevent states and counties with a history of discrimination from enacting new discriminatory voting laws.
The VRA was repeatedly renewed with bipartisan support several times up to 2006, but recently, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) made several decisions diluting sections of the VRA.
In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the VRA in the case Shelby County v. Holder. The Court ruled that the formula used to determine which states and counties were subject to preclearance was outdated and unconstitutional. As a result, states and counties with a history of discrimination were no longer required to obtain federal approval before making changes to their voting laws.
Many states, especially those with Republican legislators, have enacted more and stricter voter suppression laws designed to keep Black people and young people, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic, from easily voting.
On Thursday, in a surprise decision, the SCOTUS ruled that Alabama had diluted the power of Black voters in drawing a congressional voting map.
The case concerned a voting map redrawn by Republican lawmakers after the 2020 census, leaving only one majority Black congressional district in a state with seven districts and a Black voting-age population that had grown to about 26 percent.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who has often voted to restrict voting rights wrote the majority opinion in the 5-to-4 ruling. The Chef Justice was joined by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal members, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The impact of the decision, which required the Legislature to draw a second district in which Black voters have the opportunity to elect representatives of their choice, will not be limited to Alabama. Other states in the South, notably Louisiana and Georgia, may also have to redraw their maps to bolster Black voting power.
Political pundits are now saying that the repercussions of this decision could help Democrats regain the House majority in 2024.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who never misses a chance to erode the civil rights of Black people, wrote the dissenting opinion, saying that this decision would "sustain a system of institutionalized racial discrimination in districting — under the aegis of a statute that applies nationwide and has no expiration date — and thus to prolong the lasting harm to our society caused by the use of racial classifications in the allocation of political power.”
There are still steps that can be taken to protect voting rights. Congress could pass new voting rights legislation, such as the For the People Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, just as Republicans are working just as hard to dilute the voting power of those who may not vote for their candidates.
Not such a surprise: Trump Indicted on Federal Criminal Charges by the DOJ
Just after 7 pm ET on Thursday, former President Donald Trump was indicted on seven federal criminal charges in connection with hundreds of classified government documents he retained at his Florida home after leaving the White House.
The indictment was issued by a grand jury impaneled by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is a long-time nonpartisan career employee of the Department of Justice. Smith was appointed as Special Counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who then stepped back from the case.
Contrary to what many Republicans and far-right pundits are claiming, neither President Biden nor Merrick Garland indicted Trump. Even Jack Smith technically didn't indict Trump; the grand jury issued the indictment.
For the Republicans immediately defending Trump before they even know the actual charges shows that they think that a former president can commit any crime and get away with it.
The Department of Justice is supposed to be an independent agency in the executive branch, but Donald Trump was the one who weaponized the DOJ to achieve his goals, and Attorney General Bill Barr often acted as Trump's personal attorney.
On the other hand, President Joe Biden has repeatedly emphasized the independence of the DOJ and of Merrick Garland.
Merrick Garland does not have to approve the decision of the special counsel, but he did have the ability to disapprove of the indictment. He did not.
Trump has been escaping legal accountability ever since the 1970s when he, along with his father, illegally kept Black people from renting apartments in the buildings they owned.
Almost all of the scores of lawsuits that accused Trump were civil suits, which call for monetary damages, not jail or prison time.
But now, the disgraced, twice-impeached, twice-indicted, one-term president, who is only running for president again because he's trying to avoid accountability, is facing federal criminal charges for espionage, obstruction, and filing false statements. This is all because he stole documents from the U.S. government, some of which endanger national security, and refused to give them back.
Trump not only claims that the documents were his, but he has stated on tape that he took the documents, kept the documents, declassified the documents just by thinking about it, and may have shared the documents with others.
We'll have to wait until Tuesday, when Trump must appear for his arraignment at 3 pm ET in Miami, to get the full details about this indictment.
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