The Supreme Court is About to Murder What's Left of the Voting Rights Act

[muriel_volestrangler]

To distract you from the perils of President* Zero in the White House, the Supreme Court seems to be warming up to murder what's left of the Voting Rights Act. The one tooth that this Court left in the mouth of the VRA was Section 2, the provision that said the VRA can be used to overturn state laws that have a disproportionate impact on minority voters. Agreeing to hear this Arizona case gives the Court a chance to extract that last remaining canine. From Bloomberg:

A federal appeals court struck down two aspects of Arizona’s voting law: its longstanding policy of rejecting ballots cast in the wrong precinct and a 2016 statute that makes it a crime for most people to collect or deliver another person’s early ballot. The 7-4 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said each rule had a disproportionate impact on minority voters. But Democrats say the Arizona provisions serve primarily to disadvantage Black, Hispanic and American Indian voters. In the 2016 general election, minority voters cast ballots in the wrong precinct at more than twice the rate of Whites, according to the appeals court.

...
If the Court throws out Section 2, and it likely will be judged by a Court with a 6-3 conservative majority, then the Voting Rights Act is dead and Chief Justice John Roberts will get the full and glorious Day of Jubilee that he has been working towards since he first took a government job. Given this development, and given the current state of intense agita over the upcoming election, it is important to note that Roberts succeeded William Rehnquist in the Big Chair. This means that, ever since 1986, the Supreme Court has been led by a Republican lawyer who got his start in Republican politics as a vote suppressor. This does not give me hope.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34248550/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-section-2/

Since Mr. Pierce and Bloomberg are behind paywalls, here's Reuters on it:

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Republican appeal in Arizona voting fight

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a bid by Arizona Republicans to enforce two voting restrictions in the state that were struck down by a lower court as disproportionately burdening Black, Hispanic and Native American voters.

At issue in the case are Arizona measures that prohibit absentee ballot collection by third parties and the counting of ballots cast at the wrong polling precinct. The justices will hear the Republican-backed appeals of a January ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidating the provisions as violations of the Voting Rights Act, a 1965 U.S. law that barred racial discrimination in voting.

The restrictions will remain in effect for the Nov. 3 presidential election because the 9th Circuit put its ruling on hold pending the state’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
...
Ballot collection is legal in most states, with varying limitations. Twenty-six states allow voters to designate someone to return their ballot for them, 10 allow family members to do so, while the rest require voters to return their own ballot or are silent on the issue.

https://in.reuters.com/article/usa-court-ballots/us-supreme-court-to-hear-republican-appeal-in-arizona-voting-fight-idINKBN26N2EP

[UTUSN]

1. K&R