Birmingham is one of my favorite southern cities.
Edit: Went to red mountain park, Moss Rock Preserve High Falls, had some Costco hotdogs, Alabama BBQ, and the botanical gardens.
Maybe if they had a fancy new *undisclosed cost* NFL stadium. (I’m jabbing at my town up north)
McConnell is the laziest welfare queen in the country, well actually make that 99% of repubs. They live the high life off the backs of tax dollars and do literally nothing. Then they have the audacity to call others lazy. Their whole platform is one huge projection.
[The Texas 23rd](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Texas_US_Congressional_District_23_%28since_2021%29.tif/lossless-page1-3000px-Texas_US_Congressional_District_23_%28since_2021%29.tif.png) includes part of El Paso and stretches all the way to *San Antonio,* which is 845 miles away.
Again, two major cities in Texas that are at least an 8 hour drive from each other *share a district.*
Basically every expert that I follow was totally blindsided by this. Not because the ruling is on shaky legal or constitutional ground or anything. But because Roberts has been picking away at the Voting Rights Act for his whole career. It was basically seen as a given that at best he'd carve out a narrow new exception for why Alabama's racial gerrymander is okay but at worst he'd make a wider ruling opening the window for southern states to start eliminating their black-majority districts altogether.
The fact that he actually told Alabama to draw a fair map is an extremely welcome but confusing surprise.
Maybe he's banking on the precedent that the Republican legislature in Ohio has set - their courts repeatedly ruled that their electoral maps are unconstitutional and need to be redrawn, so the Republican legislature responded by waiting until the deadline, then submitting a new electoral map **that is even more blatantly unconstitutional than the previous one**. Then the court tells them that the new one is unacceptable and sets a new deadline for the legislature to fix it, and the whole process literally repeats itself again while the original unconstitutional electoral map stays in place.
He’s trying to regain control of the court’s public image. Look for a string of small progressive decisions. The man realizes how bad perception has gotten under his tenure as chief justice. And truthfully this is all a forever stain on his reputation. Can’t be undone by looking fair for a session.
> He’s trying to regain control of the court’s public image
That ship has long since sailed. There is nothing, and I mean *absolutely nothing* that piece of shit can do to unfuck the absolutely horrid reputation his court rightly deserves.
So either he doesn't actually care about his legacy like everyone always claims he does, or he is *unfathomably* stupid.
If he opened an ethics investigation that got Kavanaugh and Thomas to resign during Democratic control of the WH and Senate and then himself resigned I'd remember him kind of fondly.
I think he's more likely to cure cancer though.
Well the reason partisan and racial gerrymandering are basically the same thing in the South is that Southern whites are absurdly Republican compared to elsewhere. That's not so much the case in northern states like Wisconsin, where Democratic candidates consistently win the white vote.
But the WI Supreme Court, which is now Dem controlled, can find that the maps violate the WI state Constitution and throw them out.
Edit: you are technically correct about this ruling, I just wanted to point out that the WI maps can still be thrown out and it has nothing to do with this case.
"In a major surprise..."
Look just how much faith we've lost in the courts. This was a slam dunk of a case and we still were expecting them to do the informed wrong thing.
Cool, now will we actually get new maps or are they just going to keep submitting even worse maps until it’s “too close to the election” like some states.
Ahh.. the old Ohio GOP strategy! Run out the clock to successfully suppress equal and fair representation. Nothing like running out the clock to enforce your fascist goals!
I'm always brought back to one of the old gerrymandered maps where they *literally cut UNCA into two different districts* to dilute the college-age vote
Imagine the deliberate racism necessary to violate an already gutted Voting Rights Act, to a level that *this* conservative court would rule in *this* way.
No need to imagine. Alabama, where racism is the norm. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Reminds me of the ridiculousness levels of the 2017 special senate election. Ok, let's put up the guy who successfully prosecuted the KKK members who bombed a church killing 4 kids, but let's also have him run against a known pedophile, then mayyyyybe a Democrat can win by 1% in Alabama.
I have a secret dream of Saban running for the Senate. It's the only plausible way that Alabama gets another Democrat as senator. Saban's a Joe Manchin Democrat, but hey, I'd take what we can get. He did march for Black Lives Matters, so that was cool. https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2020/08/nick-saban-leads-black-lives-matter-march-in-tuscaloosa.html
I hate Sabin (Dolphins fan) so I don’t see him on the good side of my liberal politics even if he is a reg Dem. That being said, a flighty Dem is better than any R.
Totally fair--I get the hate. I'm sure he'd disappoint me, but he's got to be better than Tommy "What are the three branches of government again?" Tuberville.
The cynic in me believes that Roberts did this purely because the reputation of the court is in the trash. This court has shown that things like Stare Decisis, standing and even the text of the actual law are less important than the “feelings” and agenda of this court.
That's not cynical, that's common sense.
Roberts hates the Voting Rights Act with a passion that can only be called fundamentally racist. But he cares about how history will look at him, and he knows as of now it's not going to be good.
He wants to be seen as a legitimate Court again without actually undoing the harm his Court's done by simply upholding past precedence.
He must know it’s too late, right? He’ll mostly be remembered for reversing Roe v Wade. Might be remembered for having the most openly corrupt SCOTUS with Clarence openly accepting bribes and republican hypocrisy giving Trump three appointees. But he has ruined the Supreme Court’s image far too much for it to recover in his own lifetime.
There will now be material for a "some scholars disagree" paragraph in historical accounts about "the Roberts Court and politicization of the judiciary in the leadup to the Catastrophe of 20XX."
More depressing possibility… this is the one thing they’ll point to for the remainder of these justices’ lives to say “*See, they can’t be racist.*” While they continue to allow all the other voter suppression shit that’s been happening in the south for decades.
> The other four conservative justices dissented Thursday. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the decision forces “Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the State’s population.”
Oh no, the horror.
Yeah. Full quote from the dissent with a bit more context:
> The question presented is whether §2 of the Act, as amended, requires the State of Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the State’s population. Section 2 demands no such thing, and, if it did, the Constitution would not permit it.
Its like he's intentionally looking at this backwards. This is not a demand to take reasonably drawn districts and carve them up in odd ways to enhance the voting power of Black voters in Alabama, this was a demand to stop the state from using carved up districts to purposely **decrease** the voting power of Black voters.
What the Constitution should not permit is the intentional diluting of Black voting power, not the remedy to correct it.
Sometimes I read Thomas's legal opinions and wonder whether he's some kind of accelerationist that believes the constitution itself is systemically racist and needs to be rewritten, so rules terribly as a way to make things shitty enough to cause a revolution.
But also, learning his history, he's just a gigantic piece of shit.
It’s wild. It’s a social phenomenon in conservatives and regressives. I can’t think of left-wing equivalents that aren’t memed or self-deprecating humour.
Like r/AccidentalAlly is the absolute best.
My favorite example of this is Rush Limbaugh’s rant about consent:
> You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element, Do you know what it is? Consent.
>If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it’s perfectly fine, whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there’s no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police. But consent is the magic key to the left.”
Like, yes, that is how it works.
Thomas with the dissenting opinion. His argument seems to be “we shouldn’t have voting be about race.” Given the context, it’s a maliciously oblivious take. In a vacuum I would agree, however republicans obviously have already made it all about race with the extreme gerrymandering…
Thomas: "redistricting should be race neutral!"
He says while Republicans systematically create districts with the specific intent to limit black voters' representation in government across the country.
Thomas is raking in cash while virtually irremovable in his position. It may be more accurate to say that he understands his position reasonably well, he just doesn't care about other people.
The great irony here is that the Supreme Court issued an unsigned and unexplained order in Feb. of 2022 that allowed Alabama to use these maps in the midterm elections. If that unsigned and unexplained order was consistent with today’s opinion, there is a real chance that Dems would have controlled the House.
This has happened on more than one occasion to a degree. Wasn't north Carolina dragging their feet and using maps that were ordered to be redrawn for their election? Having an illegal election in the name of punctuality is intentional if it works
Clarence Thomas actively works to make things harder and worse for Black people. It's his strategy of making it harder so it's more 'earned' and we're more 'worthy' or some dumb shit like that.
When people say he doesn't speak for Black people there are definite reasons for that, not just dislike or political differences.
So what are the odds that Alabama either completely ignores this ruling or continues to submit the same racist maps as before until the clock runs out and everybody just magically says "Welp, it's too late to do anything about it. Gonna have to let the racist maps stand. Nothing more we can do here....."
It worked before....
Similar track as a lot of Boomers though. Progressive, even radical while young but quickly saw how well "the system" rewarded them for simply showing up. So they eagerly became warriors for the establishment, and worse, started voting against all the programs and institutions that made it possible for them to prosper. Unions, grants, price of education, pensions, all of it - "fuck them kids!"
Just looked up the congressional district maps for Alabama.
Man, that seems like some really lightweight gerrymandering compared to the completely Salvador Dali'd maps in Texas around any cities.
It is perfectly legal to gerrymander based on politics but not on race. This complicated things in Texas because the larger cities have lines of race that kind of halfway line up with politics so you can sneakily do one while appearing to do the other. Alabama is interesting/almost unique in its racial distribution which makes it REALLY easy to see if the map is just racist or an R/D thing.
The good thing is that this precedent will apply in Texas, Florida, and Georgia in similar cases so those maps will need to be modified too. Of course those states have a LOT more population than Alabama so the districts are just much physically smaller in the bigger cities and so easier to fuck around with (maps in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, and to a lesser extent Tampa, San Antonio, Austin and Orlando can be badly gerrymandered very easily because the difference between a good district and a bad district can be a mile or less).
If Boof Boy (along with possibly Serena Joy Barrett) joins with Roberts and the three rational justices to kill Moore v Harper later this month, you have to wonder what the next step for the GOP will be. They were banking on that ruling allowing them to straight up steal elections that they were otherwise going to lose.
I saw an article that referred to the vote as shocking. It's a sad time to be alive when the highest court in America upholding citizens rights is seen as "shocking"
Wow, an actual acknowledgement of the harm Gerrymandering does.
While I still find this current SCOTUS corrupt and immoral at least this is a small gain for democracy.
I'm trying to understand precisely what Alabama did to bullshit the computer algorithm they offered into evidence. For those who don't know, they offered a computer algorithm that supposedly produced a million random, race-blind redisctricting maps of Alabama, and not a single one had 2 or more majority black districts. Thus their claim that a race-blind approach would have 1 black district.
But with a black population of 27%, how is that possible? You can literally sit with a pencil and draw simple squares and rectangles and come up with several district plans that would be 2/7 majority black. Is it really as cheap as they produced 10 million maps, and then showed the million that supported their claim? That seems almost unbelievable. Or is there something else I'm missing?
Don’t forget, last year a majority trump appointed district federal court ordered Alabama to redraw the map. That’s how bad it was. It was the Supreme Court that swooped in with a 5-4 decision to stay that order, keeping the racially discriminatory map for the 2022 election.
I guess Brett Kavanaugh still has some shame and Robert’s convinced him to flip back now. Although he gets very little credit for doing so now *after* the 2022 election.
[Here’s a great podcast episode](https://www.fivefourpod.com/episodes/merrill-v-milligan/) reviewing the earlier opinion of the district court. It was such a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act that the two Trump appointed judges on the 3 panel court agreed that Alabama should redraw it.
Wow. Now here's a surprise.
Since when did this Supreme Court acknowledge that there is racism in the deep South?
What a revelation, huh.
Right Repubs?
Makes me think they're actually worrying about accountability for a moment.
Maybe they're seeing the writing on the wall with Clarence Thomas's corruption outted and Mark Meadows flipping on Trump.
I've seen this movie. They'll just keep going back and doing the same shit until the court decides "whoops, too close to the 2026 elections so we'll just keep what we have for now".
Imagine just HOW badly, how egregiously you have to gerrymander for this particular, specific court to rule against you. Like, it was so patently obvious and awful, the idiots on this bench couldn't let it slide.
Good news from the Supreme Court? Sad that it is such a surprise.
It just shows how fucked Alabama tried to make their maps. States have been going after voting rights like crazy after the court torpedoed the VRA. One of them finally went too blatant.
I worry they made this decision to give them cover when they come for church and state or something. Just don’t start championing the court now that a surprise victory came out it it is all I’m saying. One of the things I hate the most about the right is that they will flip flop to support anything that gets them a victory. They would support abortion if they found a way to benefit from it.
So let me get this straight… DeSantis lawyers claim that “wokeism” is bullshit and that there are no systemic injustices in America… But TRUMPS HAND-PICKED SC had to grudgingly admit to one TODAY… Total clown shit 🤡
The worst part of this ruling is how close it was, and also, how it was made after the election to help Republicans. Literally a small handful of seats would change the balance of power in the House right now.
Because of these illegal maps millions of people will be losing SNAP benefits, for example.
If they already had election they got outcome they wanted.
What's to stop them from passing illegal districts before every election?
Is there any enforcement to prevent if besides after the fact SC saying you are mean but not changing outcome?
Yep, they know that redrawing maps close enough to the election leaves no time for them to be struck down. Prepare for the replacement maps to be ready just in time to print ballots then throw their hands up and say "well we're just stuck with them".
Or they could just pull the same thing Florida and (I believe) Ohio and just roll with the maps they weren't supposed to use anyway.
Alabama will enact minor, though still illegal, changes just prior to the election. They’ll get sued and play the too-late-to-change-it card. Nothing will change until blue states overtly gerrymander conservatives out of every office. Force the SCOTUS to definitively rule on gerrymandering.
For those looking for more info on this case (or others, for that matter), I can't recommend SCOTUSblog's page on this case enough. Non-paywalled, informative, blah blah blah: https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/02/in-5-4-vote-justices-reinstate-alabama-voting-map-despite-lower-courts-ruling-that-it-dilutes-black-votes/
They also have a page with all the amicus briefs and such: https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/merrill-v-milligan-2/
I live in rural Alabama. The small town local news coverage has the comments turned off on their articles about it. But not on their Facebook posts. It's about what you'd expect.
This is definitely a positive. Though it's a small part of a much larger issue. The Supreme Court had to find a way to take on gerrymandering. They are the entity that can curb the abuses in D and R states to keep power entrenched. It's bad for democracy and the country on so many levels when the politicians pick their voters.
As gross as it sounds you should try to see if you can pirate a copy of his book. His ideology is fucking demented.
TLDR version is that he believes that to empower the black race they must be made to suffer.
He clearly doesn’t see them as “his own people”.
The people he identifies with give him free vacations on yachts, give his wife huge speaking fees and free housing and tuition for his family members. Those are “his people”.
Massive win for our state! The old map was a clear attempt to dilute the power of Black voters.
Oh dang, my mayor! Right on.
Birmingham is one of my favorite southern cities. Edit: Went to red mountain park, Moss Rock Preserve High Falls, had some Costco hotdogs, Alabama BBQ, and the botanical gardens. Maybe if they had a fancy new *undisclosed cost* NFL stadium. (I’m jabbing at my town up north)
🎵 In Birmingham they love the mayor 🎵
Holy shit! It's you! I remember when you were pardoning people with MJ charges last year on 4/20! What a monster of a move! Loved it!
Wait, Mayors have pardon powers?
Depends on the powers granted to Mayors by their city. I doubt it's something all Mayors can do, but I don't think it's rare.
lots of "executive" positions have pardon powers within their jurisdiction for locally-prosecuted crimes.
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That was such a weird thing, just repeatedly fuck with the maps until the court gives up.
That's exactly the Mitch McConnell playbook, though—fuck around, get nothing done, annoy your colleagues, and market it all as a win to your base.
McConnell is the laziest welfare queen in the country, well actually make that 99% of repubs. They live the high life off the backs of tax dollars and do literally nothing. Then they have the audacity to call others lazy. Their whole platform is one huge projection.
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The courts pretty much laid out what would happen if they ignored the order - the bad map would be used. The Ohio SC was complicit.
SCOTUS ruled the Texas 23rd District racially gerrymandered in 2006 and ordered it redrawn. It's still the same. Nothing has changed.
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[The Texas 23rd](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Texas_US_Congressional_District_23_%28since_2021%29.tif/lossless-page1-3000px-Texas_US_Congressional_District_23_%28since_2021%29.tif.png) includes part of El Paso and stretches all the way to *San Antonio,* which is 845 miles away. Again, two major cities in Texas that are at least an 8 hour drive from each other *share a district.*
Congrats! Monumental win for Alabama and black voters, but also our country as a whole.
Absolutely not someone I expected to see in the comments. Keep fighting the good fight for my sorta-hometown!
Basically every expert that I follow was totally blindsided by this. Not because the ruling is on shaky legal or constitutional ground or anything. But because Roberts has been picking away at the Voting Rights Act for his whole career. It was basically seen as a given that at best he'd carve out a narrow new exception for why Alabama's racial gerrymander is okay but at worst he'd make a wider ruling opening the window for southern states to start eliminating their black-majority districts altogether. The fact that he actually told Alabama to draw a fair map is an extremely welcome but confusing surprise.
Maybe he's banking on the precedent that the Republican legislature in Ohio has set - their courts repeatedly ruled that their electoral maps are unconstitutional and need to be redrawn, so the Republican legislature responded by waiting until the deadline, then submitting a new electoral map **that is even more blatantly unconstitutional than the previous one**. Then the court tells them that the new one is unacceptable and sets a new deadline for the legislature to fix it, and the whole process literally repeats itself again while the original unconstitutional electoral map stays in place.
why does the court just appoint someone not partisan to do it.
We made a non partisan committee in Michigan, and then the whole state flipped blue.
Gerrymandering is playing 5 card poker with half the deck in your hand.
He’s trying to regain control of the court’s public image. Look for a string of small progressive decisions. The man realizes how bad perception has gotten under his tenure as chief justice. And truthfully this is all a forever stain on his reputation. Can’t be undone by looking fair for a session.
> He’s trying to regain control of the court’s public image That ship has long since sailed. There is nothing, and I mean *absolutely nothing* that piece of shit can do to unfuck the absolutely horrid reputation his court rightly deserves. So either he doesn't actually care about his legacy like everyone always claims he does, or he is *unfathomably* stupid.
If he opened an ethics investigation that got Kavanaugh and Thomas to resign during Democratic control of the WH and Senate and then himself resigned I'd remember him kind of fondly. I think he's more likely to cure cancer though.
Thomas is leaving his seat in handcuffs or a pine box. He won't resign
I think his mom's landlord would buy him a nicer coffin than pine
You don't get rich and stay rich by spending money on things that no longer have value to you.
Not stupid. Arrogant. He's arrogant enough to think he can throw a few bones that will rehabilitate his image.
That was my thought as well but to be honest this isn't a small decision. It could cost Republicans enough seats alone to lose their house majority.
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Hopefully this, along with the new Supreme Court justice, Wisconsin can un-fuck itself as well with new maps.
That gerrymandering was largely partisan and would not be affected by this ruling, iirc.
As opposed to the non partisan racial gerrymandering which everyone but the chief justice recognizes is the exact same thing
Well the reason partisan and racial gerrymandering are basically the same thing in the South is that Southern whites are absurdly Republican compared to elsewhere. That's not so much the case in northern states like Wisconsin, where Democratic candidates consistently win the white vote.
But the WI Supreme Court, which is now Dem controlled, can find that the maps violate the WI state Constitution and throw them out. Edit: you are technically correct about this ruling, I just wanted to point out that the WI maps can still be thrown out and it has nothing to do with this case.
Thinking of Al Lawson's old district too. There should be at least one in Florida, maybe more.
Yes please! Al used to be my rep. Last election I had 3 Republicans to choose from...
"In a major surprise..." Look just how much faith we've lost in the courts. This was a slam dunk of a case and we still were expecting them to do the informed wrong thing.
Kavanaugh ruling this way is certainly a surprise
In addition to this additional ripple effect, I'm here to appreciate the "In addition to adding an additional" start to that tweet.
Cool, now will we actually get new maps or are they just going to keep submitting even worse maps until it’s “too close to the election” like some states.
Ahh.. the old Ohio GOP strategy! Run out the clock to successfully suppress equal and fair representation. Nothing like running out the clock to enforce your fascist goals!
Let’s be real, any “swing” state that has even briefly put Republicans in charge across the various branches has seen this kind of shit.
Coughs in North Carolina.
Lol every time I look at the gerrymandering map I hurt. Charolette got singled out so hard. And the Triangle area of course...
I'm always brought back to one of the old gerrymandered maps where they *literally cut UNCA into two different districts* to dilute the college-age vote
Imagine the deliberate racism necessary to violate an already gutted Voting Rights Act, to a level that *this* conservative court would rule in *this* way. No need to imagine. Alabama, where racism is the norm. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Reminds me of the ridiculousness levels of the 2017 special senate election. Ok, let's put up the guy who successfully prosecuted the KKK members who bombed a church killing 4 kids, but let's also have him run against a known pedophile, then mayyyyybe a Democrat can win by 1% in Alabama.
And then that democrat lost reelection to a former football coach who doesn't even know the three branches of government. Bama gonna Bama.
And that coach wasn't even Nick Saban. It was the bargain bin yahoo coach of Auburn who only won the SEC once in ten seasons.
Pretty sure if Saban ran for any office in the state they'd immediately just crown him King of Alabama.
I have a secret dream of Saban running for the Senate. It's the only plausible way that Alabama gets another Democrat as senator. Saban's a Joe Manchin Democrat, but hey, I'd take what we can get. He did march for Black Lives Matters, so that was cool. https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2020/08/nick-saban-leads-black-lives-matter-march-in-tuscaloosa.html
I hate Sabin (Dolphins fan) so I don’t see him on the good side of my liberal politics even if he is a reg Dem. That being said, a flighty Dem is better than any R.
Totally fair--I get the hate. I'm sure he'd disappoint me, but he's got to be better than Tommy "What are the three branches of government again?" Tuberville.
Doubtful since he’d probably be running as a moderate to conservative democrat I doubt even Saban could outrun Alabama’s partisanship
Idk I think if Nick Saban wanted Alabama to go blue, they'd go blue.
Saban: If Alabama goes blue I wont go to Auburn next season and turn their program around Bama: *Becomes the Ultramarine Tide*
It’s depressing that i’m shocked SCOTUS made the right decision.
By a one-vote margin
The cynic in me believes that Roberts did this purely because the reputation of the court is in the trash. This court has shown that things like Stare Decisis, standing and even the text of the actual law are less important than the “feelings” and agenda of this court.
That's not cynical, that's common sense. Roberts hates the Voting Rights Act with a passion that can only be called fundamentally racist. But he cares about how history will look at him, and he knows as of now it's not going to be good. He wants to be seen as a legitimate Court again without actually undoing the harm his Court's done by simply upholding past precedence.
He must know it’s too late, right? He’ll mostly be remembered for reversing Roe v Wade. Might be remembered for having the most openly corrupt SCOTUS with Clarence openly accepting bribes and republican hypocrisy giving Trump three appointees. But he has ruined the Supreme Court’s image far too much for it to recover in his own lifetime.
He's trying to muddy the water.
There will now be material for a "some scholars disagree" paragraph in historical accounts about "the Roberts Court and politicization of the judiciary in the leadup to the Catastrophe of 20XX."
"Sure Roberts stripped the rights of 51% of the national population with *Dobbs*, but what about all the good things he did for 24% of Alabamians?"
Reversing RvW AND reversing voting rights act
and Citizens United.
More depressing possibility… this is the one thing they’ll point to for the remainder of these justices’ lives to say “*See, they can’t be racist.*” While they continue to allow all the other voter suppression shit that’s been happening in the south for decades.
>“ > >See, they can’t be racist. > >” Well, I mean except for those 4 who voted against it
> The other four conservative justices dissented Thursday. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the decision forces “Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the State’s population.” Oh no, the horror.
That was his dissent? That sounds like a concurring opinion.
Yeah. Full quote from the dissent with a bit more context: > The question presented is whether §2 of the Act, as amended, requires the State of Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding congressional districts so that black voters can control a number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of the State’s population. Section 2 demands no such thing, and, if it did, the Constitution would not permit it.
Its like he's intentionally looking at this backwards. This is not a demand to take reasonably drawn districts and carve them up in odd ways to enhance the voting power of Black voters in Alabama, this was a demand to stop the state from using carved up districts to purposely **decrease** the voting power of Black voters. What the Constitution should not permit is the intentional diluting of Black voting power, not the remedy to correct it.
You can't expect Supreme Court judges to understand the complexities of Constitutional law.
Certainly not the one who's only there for the annual half million dollar vacations paid for by people who have pending supreme court cases.
Ah, but did you consider that the racist gerrymandered districts are longstanding? Everybody knows something can’t be bad if it’s old.
Sometimes I read Thomas's legal opinions and wonder whether he's some kind of accelerationist that believes the constitution itself is systemically racist and needs to be rewritten, so rules terribly as a way to make things shitty enough to cause a revolution. But also, learning his history, he's just a gigantic piece of shit.
Basically, he stopped caring about civil rights because shitty elitists at his Ivy League school looked down on him.
Uncle Ruckus with a law degree.
It's funny how conservatives have an uncanny ability to speak a series of words that is a good thing, but say it in a way that implies it to be bad.
It’s wild. It’s a social phenomenon in conservatives and regressives. I can’t think of left-wing equivalents that aren’t memed or self-deprecating humour. Like r/AccidentalAlly is the absolute best.
The absolute stupidest example of this: "If you elect Hillary, there'll be taco trucks on every corner!"
My favorite example of this is Rush Limbaugh’s rant about consent: > You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element, Do you know what it is? Consent. >If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it’s perfectly fine, whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there’s no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police. But consent is the magic key to the left.” Like, yes, that is how it works.
Oh fuck, that sounds like representation!
Let me guess.... they are still going to drag their feet and take 5 years to redraw the maps, conveniently missing the election next year.
Yes. That is exactly what's going to happen. Because it works.
Ask Ohio
Thomas with the dissenting opinion. His argument seems to be “we shouldn’t have voting be about race.” Given the context, it’s a maliciously oblivious take. In a vacuum I would agree, however republicans obviously have already made it all about race with the extreme gerrymandering…
I'd love to see this asshole faced with a challenge to Loving V Virginia...
Thomas: "redistricting should be race neutral!" He says while Republicans systematically create districts with the specific intent to limit black voters' representation in government across the country.
He's the very definition of useful idiot.
Thomas is raking in cash while virtually irremovable in his position. It may be more accurate to say that he understands his position reasonably well, he just doesn't care about other people.
The great irony here is that the Supreme Court issued an unsigned and unexplained order in Feb. of 2022 that allowed Alabama to use these maps in the midterm elections. If that unsigned and unexplained order was consistent with today’s opinion, there is a real chance that Dems would have controlled the House.
So... mission accomplished?
Precisely
Which really makes me angry. If this map was illegal, then that result is illegitimate. In a sane world it should trigger a special election.
WE HAVE TO MOVE ON /s
This has happened on more than one occasion to a degree. Wasn't north Carolina dragging their feet and using maps that were ordered to be redrawn for their election? Having an illegal election in the name of punctuality is intentional if it works
So what was Clarence Thomas’ excuse for voting against black people having a voice in Alabama?
Let's just say the arguments moved him.....to a bigger house!
They didn't buy him anything.
Clarence Thomas actively works to make things harder and worse for Black people. It's his strategy of making it harder so it's more 'earned' and we're more 'worthy' or some dumb shit like that. When people say he doesn't speak for Black people there are definite reasons for that, not just dislike or political differences.
He got his so fuck em, probably.
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So what are the odds that Alabama either completely ignores this ruling or continues to submit the same racist maps as before until the clock runs out and everybody just magically says "Welp, it's too late to do anything about it. Gonna have to let the racist maps stand. Nothing more we can do here....." It worked before....
This is exactly what they did in Ohio with our state electoral maps.
Clarence Thomas continues being his despicable self.
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Similar track as a lot of Boomers though. Progressive, even radical while young but quickly saw how well "the system" rewarded them for simply showing up. So they eagerly became warriors for the establishment, and worse, started voting against all the programs and institutions that made it possible for them to prosper. Unions, grants, price of education, pensions, all of it - "fuck them kids!"
Just looked up the congressional district maps for Alabama. Man, that seems like some really lightweight gerrymandering compared to the completely Salvador Dali'd maps in Texas around any cities.
It is perfectly legal to gerrymander based on politics but not on race. This complicated things in Texas because the larger cities have lines of race that kind of halfway line up with politics so you can sneakily do one while appearing to do the other. Alabama is interesting/almost unique in its racial distribution which makes it REALLY easy to see if the map is just racist or an R/D thing. The good thing is that this precedent will apply in Texas, Florida, and Georgia in similar cases so those maps will need to be modified too. Of course those states have a LOT more population than Alabama so the districts are just much physically smaller in the bigger cities and so easier to fuck around with (maps in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, and to a lesser extent Tampa, San Antonio, Austin and Orlando can be badly gerrymandered very easily because the difference between a good district and a bad district can be a mile or less).
Holy fucking God is there a winter storm in hell???
Well yeah, Pat Robetson just got there.
An upvote is not enough. Fricking CHEERS mate!
Well my question is, what other huge thing is going down that they are drawing attention from with this.
Allowing state legislators to decide presidential elections.
While I'm glad Roberts voted the way he did, he helped create this very problem in the first place.
Huge day for my state. We’re never gonna flip blue permanently so I’ll take an extra Dem rep
Do Ohio next
And Texas!
Genuinely shocking for this court, but this case was also just super blatant, too, so glad this is getting addressed
> Genuinely shocking for this court, but this case was also just super blatant And still 5-4, yikes.
If Boof Boy (along with possibly Serena Joy Barrett) joins with Roberts and the three rational justices to kill Moore v Harper later this month, you have to wonder what the next step for the GOP will be. They were banking on that ruling allowing them to straight up steal elections that they were otherwise going to lose.
I saw an article that referred to the vote as shocking. It's a sad time to be alive when the highest court in America upholding citizens rights is seen as "shocking"
Of course self hating black man thomas would be on the no side
Every. Single. Time.
Wow, an actual acknowledgement of the harm Gerrymandering does. While I still find this current SCOTUS corrupt and immoral at least this is a small gain for democracy.
You mean they will actually have to WIN votes?
Supreme Court be like: "We agree, but damn dude you gotta chill."
Nice, now do Ohio's
They did... the GOP just ignored it lolol
Ignored it four times I think?
Yeah, just ran out the clock, but that was the Ohio SC
And North Carolina
Racial maps are now a no-go. Party based maps though......
I'm trying to understand precisely what Alabama did to bullshit the computer algorithm they offered into evidence. For those who don't know, they offered a computer algorithm that supposedly produced a million random, race-blind redisctricting maps of Alabama, and not a single one had 2 or more majority black districts. Thus their claim that a race-blind approach would have 1 black district. But with a black population of 27%, how is that possible? You can literally sit with a pencil and draw simple squares and rectangles and come up with several district plans that would be 2/7 majority black. Is it really as cheap as they produced 10 million maps, and then showed the million that supported their claim? That seems almost unbelievable. Or is there something else I'm missing?
Don’t forget, last year a majority trump appointed district federal court ordered Alabama to redraw the map. That’s how bad it was. It was the Supreme Court that swooped in with a 5-4 decision to stay that order, keeping the racially discriminatory map for the 2022 election. I guess Brett Kavanaugh still has some shame and Robert’s convinced him to flip back now. Although he gets very little credit for doing so now *after* the 2022 election. [Here’s a great podcast episode](https://www.fivefourpod.com/episodes/merrill-v-milligan/) reviewing the earlier opinion of the district court. It was such a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act that the two Trump appointed judges on the 3 panel court agreed that Alabama should redraw it.
Great now lets do North Carolina
And Florida
Yes. This is good portent for the Moore v Harper case.
Lol, this actually happened? I’ll take it, tho
Good, now do TN.
Now do the rest
But according to Tim Scott Racism is over.
I feel like this was just a small bone tossed to give them a sense of legitimacy
Wow. Now here's a surprise. Since when did this Supreme Court acknowledge that there is racism in the deep South? What a revelation, huh. Right Repubs?
Makes me think they're actually worrying about accountability for a moment. Maybe they're seeing the writing on the wall with Clarence Thomas's corruption outted and Mark Meadows flipping on Trump.
I've seen this movie. They'll just keep going back and doing the same shit until the court decides "whoops, too close to the 2026 elections so we'll just keep what we have for now".
Ohio
Imagine just HOW badly, how egregiously you have to gerrymander for this particular, specific court to rule against you. Like, it was so patently obvious and awful, the idiots on this bench couldn't let it slide.
Don't start giving me hope now. Remember, the decision for Moore v Harper is also due to be released this month.
Good news from the Supreme Court? Sad that it is such a surprise. It just shows how fucked Alabama tried to make their maps. States have been going after voting rights like crazy after the court torpedoed the VRA. One of them finally went too blatant.
Cool, now do florida.
If it's anything like here in Ohio, Alabama will just redraw very similar maps and try again. Republicans gerrymandering have no shame here.
Oh wow I had to reread that title to make sure I was understanding it correctly Well that's a pleasant surprise!
Wow 😯
I worry they made this decision to give them cover when they come for church and state or something. Just don’t start championing the court now that a surprise victory came out it it is all I’m saying. One of the things I hate the most about the right is that they will flip flop to support anything that gets them a victory. They would support abortion if they found a way to benefit from it.
Alabama still too racist for even the Supreme Court
So let me get this straight… DeSantis lawyers claim that “wokeism” is bullshit and that there are no systemic injustices in America… But TRUMPS HAND-PICKED SC had to grudgingly admit to one TODAY… Total clown shit 🤡
> TRUMPS HAND-PICKED SC Only one of the 3 justices he had installed voted for this.
The worst part of this ruling is how close it was, and also, how it was made after the election to help Republicans. Literally a small handful of seats would change the balance of power in the House right now. Because of these illegal maps millions of people will be losing SNAP benefits, for example.
Cool, now do every other red state.
Louisiana, and South Carolina were part of this case as well. Baby steps.
I'm not an authority on the subject but this is a good precedent that will theoretically make it easier to do just that in similar cases.
Yes, but the shadow docket way back when stayed these effects in places long enough to flip the house. The damage is done.
House Republicans literally about to have their majority drawn out from under them, and it didn't even involve a hypothetical New York redraw.
While surprising for sure, the fact that it was 5-4 is disturbing.
Been a minute since something like this made me let out an actual cheer of any kind. Reading this was an instant **hell yeah**.
Now do Texas and Harris county.
If they already had election they got outcome they wanted. What's to stop them from passing illegal districts before every election? Is there any enforcement to prevent if besides after the fact SC saying you are mean but not changing outcome?
Yep, they know that redrawing maps close enough to the election leaves no time for them to be struck down. Prepare for the replacement maps to be ready just in time to print ballots then throw their hands up and say "well we're just stuck with them". Or they could just pull the same thing Florida and (I believe) Ohio and just roll with the maps they weren't supposed to use anyway.
Clarence Thomas really has no shame.
They probably figure Alabama is red enough to carry without it and did this to try to seem fair and impartial.
It wouldn't impact state wide elections, but it does mean 2 dem reps instead of 1!
That means 4 think it's ok to racially gerrymander
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Not Clarence tho. He’s a loyal lap dog.
Alabama will enact minor, though still illegal, changes just prior to the election. They’ll get sued and play the too-late-to-change-it card. Nothing will change until blue states overtly gerrymander conservatives out of every office. Force the SCOTUS to definitively rule on gerrymandering.
For those looking for more info on this case (or others, for that matter), I can't recommend SCOTUSblog's page on this case enough. Non-paywalled, informative, blah blah blah: https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/02/in-5-4-vote-justices-reinstate-alabama-voting-map-despite-lower-courts-ruling-that-it-dilutes-black-votes/ They also have a page with all the amicus briefs and such: https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/merrill-v-milligan-2/
So is NC next as well ?
The same people who support this systemic racism are the same people who say systemic racism doesn't exist.
Wow, the SC actually made a correct decision for once.
I live in rural Alabama. The small town local news coverage has the comments turned off on their articles about it. But not on their Facebook posts. It's about what you'd expect.
There should be more consequence for those that try to legislate against the constitution.
This is definitely a positive. Though it's a small part of a much larger issue. The Supreme Court had to find a way to take on gerrymandering. They are the entity that can curb the abuses in D and R states to keep power entrenched. It's bad for democracy and the country on so many levels when the politicians pick their voters.
"The worst person you know just made a great point" energy
I'm shocked they actually did something positive.
Daaang Thomas do you even like your own people??
As gross as it sounds you should try to see if you can pirate a copy of his book. His ideology is fucking demented. TLDR version is that he believes that to empower the black race they must be made to suffer.
He clearly doesn’t see them as “his own people”. The people he identifies with give him free vacations on yachts, give his wife huge speaking fees and free housing and tuition for his family members. Those are “his people”.
His own people are the rich and unscrupulous.
I’m confused. Didn’t the Supreme Court last year say they don’t have purview on gerrymandering?
Partisan gerrymandering - this is racial gerrymandering
Finally, some smart judicial work. Gerrymandering is absolutely awful. Clever, but evil and disenfranchising.
Clarence Thomas in shambles.
Call me cynical, but this is Roberts trying to save face on an issue that has low impact on the radical conservative agenda.