Henderson Lake in the Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana. It is a human made lake. #Louisiana #Atchafalaya
Henderson Lake in the Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana. It is a human made lake. #Louisiana #Atchafalaya
The Next Golden Age of the #DeathPenalty Is Beginning
#Trump & the #Republican Party are bringing #CapitalPunishment back to the forefront of American #criminal justice.
#law #US
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/death-penalty-golden-age-trump/684691/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxUVtWoT14LPwwRDqhowRGMc
#Trump has been forthright about his intention to bring about a #DeathPenalty renaissance, & now his efforts are coming to fruition. This yr has been a particularly lethal one for the #US’ #DeathRow prisoners. Together, #Alabama, #Arizona, #Florida, #Indiana, #Louisiana, #Mississippi, #Missouri, #Oklahoma, #SouthCarolina, #Tennessee, & #Texas have executed a total of 40 people in the past 10 months by injection, nitrogen hypoxia, & firing squad, surpassing 2024’s total of 25—a significant spike…
Edward D. Greim, a partner at the Kansas City firm Graves Garrett Greim, who is representing the #white voters from #Louisiana who challenged the map, urges the justices to act in time to allow new maps in the #2026election. [of course he does]
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
Edward D. Greim, a partner at the Kansas City firm Graves Garrett Greim, who is representing the #white voters from #Louisiana who challenged the map, urges the justices to act in time to allow new maps in the #2026election. [of course he does]
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
Arguments underway in #SCOTUS #VotingRightsAct case
#JohnRoberts first called on Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to present her argument. Nelson is representing Press Robinson & other #Black #Louisiana voters.
Nelson argues her opponents “seek stagging reversal of precedent that would throw maps across the country into chaos.”
#law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
#SCOTUS is hearing arguments Wednesday over a core provision of the #VotingRightsAct that is designed to protect racial minorities.
Lawyers for #Louisiana & the #Trump admin [the first admin ever to challenge the law] will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state’s 2nd majority Black congressional district & make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of #race in #redistricting.
#law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
https://apnews.com/live/supreme-court-voting-rights-arguments-updates?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-10-15-Live+updates
Earlier, Justice #Kavanaugh gave #Louisiana’s lawyer an opportunity to push back on the #NAACP lawyer’s warning of “catastrophic” implications if the court strikes down §2 & the possibility that none of Louisiana’s 6 congressional districts would be majority-minority.
The state’s lawyer says, “I don’t know what our legislature would do,” but adds, “I don’t think the sky is going to fall.”
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
“It is a separate question as to how we go about remedying that, & the extent to which we need to use #race as a remedy,” Justice #Jackson added. “That’s the question we’re here on today.”
Up next is attorney Edward Greim for Phillip Callais & other #white #Louisiana voters.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
In an animated discussion to close up Aguiñaga’s arguments, Justice #Jackson asked him to specify where in §2 another minority district was laid out as a potential solution.
As the #Louisiana solicitor general repeatedly referenced prior court interpretation of §2 as seeking to settle matters of “racial injustice,” Jackson interjected to note that such cases were “so tied up w/race because that’s the initial problem.”
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
Now the justices will hear from J. Benjamin Aguiñaga, #Louisiana’s solicitor general. The state is no longer defending the disputed map.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
#Gorsuch appeared skeptical of Nelson’s argument, pressing her on how & when race can be used in the drawing of maps. His questions cut to the heart of the questions the justices are considering today.
“You’re saying sometimes acceptable for a federal district court to order a map that intentionally discriminates on the basis of race?” he asked. The #Louisiana maps at issue today weren’t drawn by a judge, but courts can order maps re-drawn under the #VRA.
The court’s conservative majority effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years in invalidating admissions plans at Harvard & the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private & public colleges, respectively.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
Now the justices will hear from J. Benjamin Aguiñaga, #Louisiana’s solicitor general. The state is no longer defending the disputed map.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
When it comes to redrawing districts in #Louisiana, the argument by plaintiffs is that #Republicans are seeking to condense the #Black vote then dilute it by dividing them among districts.
Justice Jackson brings up a 2023 case from #Alabama where #SCOTUS upheld the #VotingRightsAct.
Nelson’s argument seems to suggest, “We not revisit the determination that we made just 2 years ago,” Jackson said.
“That is absolutely correct,” Nelson responded.
Arguments underway in #SCOTUS #VotingRightsAct case
#JohnRoberts first called on Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to present her argument. Nelson is representing Press Robinson & other #Black #Louisiana voters.
Nelson argues her opponents “seek stagging reversal of precedent that would throw maps across the country into chaos.”
#law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
The other lawyers are the #Trump administration’s deputy solicitor general, Hashim Mooppan, #Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga & Edward Greim, the lawyer for the #white voters who sued over the map with 2 majority #Black districts.
Louisiana switched sides after the court ordered new arguments.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
Roberts & #Kavanaugh are the ones to watch
Along with the three liberal justices, #JohnRoberts & Brett Kavanaugh were part of a surprising decision two years ago that required #Alabama to redraw its congressional districts to benefit Black voters and led to the new map in #Louisiana as well.
The outcome likely will be different if either justice votes differently this time around.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
4 lawyers will present arguments to the court
But only one is defending the #Louisiana congressional map with 2 majority #Black districts.
That will be #CivilRights lawyer Janai Nelson, representing the Black voters who sued when the state initially produced a map with just one majority Black district.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
#SCOTUS is hearing arguments Wednesday over a core provision of the #VotingRightsAct that is designed to protect racial minorities.
Lawyers for #Louisiana & the #Trump admin [the first admin ever to challenge the law] will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state’s 2nd majority Black congressional district & make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of #race in #redistricting.
#law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
https://apnews.com/live/supreme-court-voting-rights-arguments-updates?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-10-15-Live+updates
Roberts & #Kavanaugh are the ones to watch
Along with the three liberal justices, #JohnRoberts & Brett Kavanaugh were part of a surprising decision two years ago that required #Alabama to redraw its congressional districts to benefit Black voters and led to the new map in #Louisiana as well.
The outcome likely will be different if either justice votes differently this time around.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
#SCOTUS is hearing arguments Wednesday over a core provision of the #VotingRightsAct that is designed to protect racial minorities.
Lawyers for #Louisiana & the #Trump admin [the first admin ever to challenge the law] will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state’s 2nd majority Black congressional district & make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of #race in #redistricting.
#law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
https://apnews.com/live/supreme-court-voting-rights-arguments-updates?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-10-15-Live+updates
The #Trump admin unsuccessfully argued that courts cannot second-guess the president’s determination that Tren de Aragua was connected to #Venezuela’s government & represented a danger to the #US, meriting use of the act.
In a 2-1 ruling, the judges said they granted the preliminary injunction sought by the plaintiffs because they “found no invasion or predatory incursion” in this case.
#law#AlienEnemiesAct#ImmigrationLaw #immigration#5thCircuit#AbuseOfPower#Constitution#DueProcess
The decision bars #deportations from #Texas, #Louisiana & #Mississippi. In the majority were US Circuit Judges Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, & Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Joe Biden appointee. Andrew Oldham, a #Trump appointee, dissented.
The majority opinion said Trump’s allegations about Tren de Aragua do not meet the historical levels of national conflict that #Congress intended for the act.
What One Man’s 45-Year-Old Case Tells Us About the “Jim Crow Juries” Haunting Louisiana
---
Today, a split verdict would mean a mistrial. But in 1980s Louisiana, when nonunanimous juries were still legal, 19-year-old Lloyd Gray, a Black man, was sentenced to prison for life — even though the only two Black jurors had voted not guilty.
https://www.propublica.org/article/lloyd-gray-louisiana-split-juries-history?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post