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Hey Disenfranchised Voters!! You're on Your Own!!
The Federal Judiciary Tells Disenfranchised Voters: You're on Your Own
In four awful decisions over the past two weeks, federal courts cleared the way for voter suppression in November.
By Mark Joseph Stern
July 06, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/supreme-court-voting-rights-alabama-texas-wisconsin-florida.html
SNIP
In a dizzying succession of rulings, courts are laying the groundwork for a chaotic Election Day. One appeals court allowed Wisconsin to reinstate its dramatic cutback on early voting in a startling opinion that explicitly authorizes lawmakers to manipulate election laws for partisan gain. Another appeals court blocked a lower court decision that protected indigent ex-felons’ ability to vote in Florida. The Supreme Court also delivered a one-two punch, first allowing Texas to impose discriminatory limits on mail-in voting, then reversing a decision that eased voting restrictions in Alabama due to the pandemic. Taken together, these moves indicate that a growing number of federal judges—and five justices on the Supreme Court—have simply abdicated their responsibility to safeguard voting rights. This election was already a fraught battle over the future of American democracy; now courts are retreating from the fight, leaving voters to fend for themselves.
Start with Wisconsin, the epicenter of the voting wars this election cycle. In April, in an instantly notorious 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court forced thousands of residents to choose between voting in person during a pandemic and forfeiting their right to vote. On June 29, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals added insult to injury, greenlighting the state’s sharp curb on early voting. For years, Wisconsin’s local governments set their own election rules, and some allowed as many as six weeks of early voting—until Republican legislators set the outer limit at two weeks. A federal judge had repeatedly blocked this cutback, finding that it disproportionately affected racial minorities.
After inexplicably sitting on the case for more than three years, the 7th Circuit reversed that decision, letting the cuts take effect. Judge Frank Easterbrook’s opinion for the court announced a new constitutional rule: Lawmakers “are entitled to consider politics when changing the rules about voting,” he declared. In other words, Republican legislators can manipulate election laws to make it more difficult for Democrats to cast a ballot. Easterbrook derived this alleged principle from Rucho v. Common Cause, in which SCOTUS held that federal courts can’t stop partisan gerrymandering. But Rucho merely found that federal judges are incapable of determining when political redistricting “goes too far”; it has nothing to say about other election laws, even if conservative judges desperately wish it did.
SNIP
In four awful decisions over the past two weeks, federal courts cleared the way for voter suppression in November.
By Mark Joseph Stern
July 06, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/supreme-court-voting-rights-alabama-texas-wisconsin-florida.html
SNIP
In a dizzying succession of rulings, courts are laying the groundwork for a chaotic Election Day. One appeals court allowed Wisconsin to reinstate its dramatic cutback on early voting in a startling opinion that explicitly authorizes lawmakers to manipulate election laws for partisan gain. Another appeals court blocked a lower court decision that protected indigent ex-felons’ ability to vote in Florida. The Supreme Court also delivered a one-two punch, first allowing Texas to impose discriminatory limits on mail-in voting, then reversing a decision that eased voting restrictions in Alabama due to the pandemic. Taken together, these moves indicate that a growing number of federal judges—and five justices on the Supreme Court—have simply abdicated their responsibility to safeguard voting rights. This election was already a fraught battle over the future of American democracy; now courts are retreating from the fight, leaving voters to fend for themselves.
Start with Wisconsin, the epicenter of the voting wars this election cycle. In April, in an instantly notorious 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court forced thousands of residents to choose between voting in person during a pandemic and forfeiting their right to vote. On June 29, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals added insult to injury, greenlighting the state’s sharp curb on early voting. For years, Wisconsin’s local governments set their own election rules, and some allowed as many as six weeks of early voting—until Republican legislators set the outer limit at two weeks. A federal judge had repeatedly blocked this cutback, finding that it disproportionately affected racial minorities.
After inexplicably sitting on the case for more than three years, the 7th Circuit reversed that decision, letting the cuts take effect. Judge Frank Easterbrook’s opinion for the court announced a new constitutional rule: Lawmakers “are entitled to consider politics when changing the rules about voting,” he declared. In other words, Republican legislators can manipulate election laws to make it more difficult for Democrats to cast a ballot. Easterbrook derived this alleged principle from Rucho v. Common Cause, in which SCOTUS held that federal courts can’t stop partisan gerrymandering. But Rucho merely found that federal judges are incapable of determining when political redistricting “goes too far”; it has nothing to say about other election laws, even if conservative judges desperately wish it did.
SNIP
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well worth reading entire article
4 replies
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