#Tag
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
In a back-and-forth with Nelson about time limits, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that the #VotingRightsAct section in question, “doesn’t need a time limit, because it’s not doing any work other than just pointing us to the direction of where we might need to do something.”
Nelson said it would be “reckless” to determine, “somehow if Section 2 is no longer needed simply because it has been so successful in rooting out racial discrimination in voting.”
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
#Kavanaugh *again* comes back to the question of whether the country might come to a point where it no longer needs to take #race into account when drawing voting districts.
Aguiñaga, the Louisiana solicitor general, essentially argues that we’re there already [oh really?]:
“I think the warning bells have been sounding for decades, & I think that’s a long enough notice for anybody involved.”
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
“Our duty of candor requires, requires us to give the court our honest answer to that question,” Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga, said. “The race-based redistricting that you’re now objecting to is redistricting designed to remedy a specific identified, proved violation of law.”
#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.
Nelson pushed back. It’s not #discrimination for states to keep race in mind as they draw voting districts to comply with the #VRA & ensure representation for minority votes, she argued.
Under questioning from Justice Elena #Kagan, Nelson describes as “catastrophic” the impact of Secton 2 of the #VotingRightsAct ceasing to prevent vote dissolution, including in legislative districts beyond #Congress.
#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
Asked by Justice #Sotomayor to delineate differences between the current case & a 2023 decision that dealt with affirmative action, Nelson argued that the prior case “involved the diversity rationale involving an admissions process with a university, not a statute.”
In 2023, #SCOTUS struck down #AffirmativeAction in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor & forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
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
In a back-and-forth with Nelson about time limits, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that the #VotingRightsAct section in question, “doesn’t need a time limit, because it’s not doing any work other than just pointing us to the direction of where we might need to do something.”
Nelson said it would be “reckless” to determine, “somehow if Section 2 is no longer needed simply because it has been so successful in rooting out racial discrimination in voting.”
#Kavanaugh, one of the key justices to watch in this case, questions whether there might be a point where the country no longer needs to take #race into account in drawing voting districts.
“The issue, as you know, is that this court’s cases, in a variety of contexts, has said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time … but that they should not be indefinite & should have an end point,” he said.
#SCOTUS #law #VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #ActivistCourt #WhiteSupremacy
Early debates center on 1986 Gingles ruling
Justices questioned Nelson on the “Gingles test,” which dates from a 1986 court ruling resulting in the invalidation of North Carolina legislative districts & yielded more single-member districts in state legislatures.
“You look at how different races of voters vote & whether they vote in a way that is polarized,” Nelson said, responding to a question about considering partisan & race in drawing districts.
“We’re talking about racially polarized voting that is above 84%, which is more than what this court found in Thornburg v. Gingles in 1986,” Nelson said.
A bit of political/legal jargon repeatedly came up early in Wednesday’s voting rights oral arguments.
“Packing & cracking” refers to a practice by the party in power, which tries to pack Black voters into condensed areas, then divide them.
#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
#ClarenceThomas has been questioning section 2 almost since he joined the court in 1991
The questioning begins with Thomas. His long-held view that drawing districts with #race in mind violates the #Constitution. Until now, that view has never commanded a majority of the court.
#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
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
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
