Voting Rights Act at stake as Supreme Court ponders its prey
Alabama redistricting case makes representation of Black voters vulnerable to SCOTUS predators.
On Tuesday, the state of Alabama – represented by Attorney General Steve Marshall and whippersnapper Solicitor General Edmund LaCour – defended its congressional district map before the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall and LaCour argued that it’s fair, fine and dandy that Alabama’s Black voters make up 27 percent of the population but have only 14 percent of the representation in Congress.
In his column – This is how the Voting Rights Act ends – al.com – Kyle Whitmire writes:
“Earlier this year, a three-judge panel — including two Trump appointees — found that Alabama had violated the Constitution by drawing too many Black people into the state’s only majority-Black congressional district. It was a surprising outcome unfavorable to the state’s Republican supermajority.
R E L A T E D: Alabama’s SCOTUS lawyer gets critical race history lesson, courtesy Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson – al.com
R E L A T E D: SCOTUS could leave Alabama with two Black districts. Or zero. – al.com
R E L A T E D: Supreme Court divided over Alabama redistricting as Voting Rights Act hangs in the balance – al.com
“The judges ordered the Alabama Legislature to draw a new district map, but the Legislature — which had drawn the original map in a matter of days — said it couldn’t meet the court’s deadline. The three-judge panel gave the state a deadline, after which it would draw the state’s new congressional map for it.
“That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court intervened.
“Using its so-called “shadow docket,” the court stayed the lower court ruling until it could hear the case — after Alabama’s 2022 primaries. For now, the Supreme Court reinstated the Alabama Legislature’s district map. And the court may not deliver a ruling in the case until next year, well after the general election next month.
“The higher court’s intervention sent a clear message. If Constitutional rights or fair representation for Black voters were at risk, the court cared less about those things than it did getting another election done with.
“Putting something on the back burner says everything about where it lands on your list of priorities.
“But this case isn’t only about how many seats one party or the other has in Alabama and in Congress. It’s about the Voting Rights Act, or what’s left of it.
“Already, Alabama has played an outsized role in the voting rights of Black Americans. It was the march from Selma to Montgomery that set the Voting Rights Act on its way into law.
“And Alabama is where, too, the Voting Rights Act might meet its end.”
Read all of Whitmire’s column here
Related cartoons and essays by JD Crowe:
SCOTUS is OK with Alabama’s crime scene voting map – al.com
Jim Crow is alive and desperate in the GOP – al.com
GOP battle cry: ‘Snuff out the vote!’ – al.com
True stories and stuff:
Robert Plant head-butted me. Thanks, David Coverdale – al.com
I was ZZ Top’s drummer for a night and got kidnapped by groupies – al.com
Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe
Dead man talking: ‘I survived Alabama execution attempt’ – al.com
Bryan Harsin watch: War Eagle? Auburn’s battle cry should be ‘War Buzzard’ – al.com
How Bruce Pearl can solve Auburn’s Bryan Harsin problem – al.com
Welcome to Speed Trap, Alabama: Where small towns turn into ‘little monsters’ – al.com
Witnessing an Alabama execution? Wear a strong set of underwear, ladies – al.com
‘Rainbow fentanyl’ targets kids with candy-colored pills that kill – al.com
Birmingham gun violence: How do we stop the bleeding? – al.com
Horns Down. Texas, don’t mess with Alabama’s Million Dollar Band – al.com
MAGA Republicans and AL GOP: Backstabbing the Blue – al.com
JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix.
85
JD Crowe toons: 2021 year in review