Oh dear God. This battle is going to last for a long, long time. Ian Millhiser on the Supreme Court:
The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear two consolidated cases that could eviscerate the right to be free from racial discrimination in voting. And the Court agreed to hear these cases just weeks before the Senate is likely to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court, giving a Republican Party that is often hostile to voting rights a 6-3 majority on the nation’s highest court.
It’s difficult to exaggerate the stakes in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and Arizona Republican Party v. Democratic National Committee.
The cases involve two Arizona laws restricting the right to vote. One law requires ballots cast in the wrong location to be tossed out, while the other prevents individuals from delivering another person’s absentee ballot to the elections office. But as these cases arise under the Voting Rights Act — a seminal law preventing racist voting laws that the Supreme Court has already weakened considerably — they provide a conservative-majority Supreme Court the opportunity to dismantle what’s left of the Voting Rights Act.
Early Friday morning, the White House revealed that President Trump tested positive for Covid-19. But that news will, at most, impact just one presidential election. The Court’s decision in the Democratic National Committee cases, by contrast, could fundamentally reshape all elections moving forward. It could allow racist voter discrimination to run rampant throughout American democracy. And it potentially endangers the ability of the Democratic Party, with its multiracial coalition, to compete in all future elections, at least at the national level.
We cannot know yet what the Supreme Court will do in this case. Perhaps two Republican justices will get cold feet and agree to save the Voting Rights Act. Or perhaps Democrats will win a landslide victory in the upcoming election and pack the Supreme Court with additional justices — stripping the GOP of its Supreme Court majority in the process.
Barring such events, however, American democracy is in terrible danger.The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Democratic National Committee cases could threaten the fairness of American elections for years to come.
I know that it’s hard to remember in light of our current circumstances but the sad fact is that the Grim Reaper McConnell set this in motion when he stole the Garland seat. They had a 5-4 majority for this even before RBG died. Whatever happens in the election, the fight is going to continue unless the Democrats have the guts to re-balance our system by adding states and expanding the Supreme Court. Otherwise it will be almost impossible to fix this democracy.