Mostly Monday Reads: Surprise! The Supreme Court backs Voting Rights again!

Gustave Courbet, The Young Ladies on the Bank of the Seine, 1856, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, France.

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

Our summer has pushed me beyond the point of being too hot to move. I’m just trying to stave off heat exhaustion with water, fans, and the absence of sunlight. I’ve never appreciated clouds like this before. The radar showing rain all around us is one big tease. It’s to the point where it doesn’t cool down at night. I am. Therefore, I sweat.

Louisiana made it to the news today for its attempts to gerrymander congressional districts from our once purple state into Maga red. The Supreme Court, following a previous decision in Alabama, has decided that the Voting Rights Act does exist in a meaningful way despite Chief Justice Robert Robert’s. This is from NBC News, as reported by Lawrence Hurley. “Supreme Court paves the way for Louisiana congressional districts to be redrawn. The decision was expected in light of the court’s  affirming a key part of the Voting Rights Act in a similar case from Alabama.”

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Louisiana’s appeal seeking to prevent the state’s congressional map from being redrawn over claims that it unlawfully dilutes the influence of Black voters.

The move via a brief unsigned order was expected after the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 8that buttressed a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act in a similar case concerning congressional districts in Alabama.

The court order noted that the case should be resolved in lower courts “in advance of the 2024 congressional elections in Louisiana.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Alabama case could lead to a new map being drawn in Louisiana in which Black voters would have a chance to elect their preferred representative in two of the state’s six congressional districts instead of one.

In the Alabama case, the Supreme Court unexpectedly upheld a lower court ruling that said the Republican-drawn map in that state discriminated against Black voters by making it difficult for them to vote for candidates of their choosing.

Philip Sutton, ‘Shall I compare thee to a  summer’s day’, 1988, Thd Potteries Museum & Art

Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog offered this analysis.

The Court had initially agreed to hear this case finding a voting rights violation in the failure to draw another majority-minority district in Louisiana, but now dismisses the cert. grant as improvidently granted after the Court’s decision in Milligan last week.

Now watch Louisiana try to run out the clock under Purcell despite the court’s order that things be resolved in advance of 2024. And you can bet that judges on the most conservative appeals court in the country may be skeptical of a voting rights remedy despite the ringing endorsement of such remedies by the Court last week in Milligan.

We’rWe’refident that MAGA Supreme AG Jeff Landry will do just that.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington  Post writes, “A “ear after Dobbs, the pro-choice movement has never been stronger.” ” Let’sope so!

It’s not just polls that reveal the shift. In the 2022 midterms, numerous Democrats in swing seats leaned into the abortion issue and won. And a pro-choice judge notched a double-digit win in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race in April. Ballot propositions protecting abortion rights have won in all contests since Dobbs. At a time when Republicans are struggling to hold on to women and suburban voters, the abortion issue may substantially affect voting patterns for years to come.

House Democrats’ Pro-Choice Caucus and every House Democratic leader, including former speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), held a news conference Friday highlighting their effort to force an up-or-down vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act that would enshrine Roe in federal law. Democrats, who have 210 votes from their side for the discharge petition, challenged Republicans to come up with the eight additional votes needed to force a vote. Calling Dobbs part of the “Supreme Court hall of shame,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) excoriated the court, saying it had “restricted and limited and undermined freedom for women all across America.” A number of Democrats spoke passionately about the suffering inflicted on women by what they called a “corrupt” Supreme Court filled with “right-wing co-conspirators.”

Friday’s speakers decried the assault on personal “freedom,” a value Democrats appear more than ready to embrace as Republicans ban abortions, ban books and target the LGBTQ+ community. Women’s suffering and humiliation are motivating Democrats to accuse Republicans of turning women into second-class citizens. For years, many Democrats avoided even using the word “abortion”; now, they’re putting abortion in the larger context of freedom, dignity and self-determination.

Kondracki, Henry; Summer: Miles and His Kite;

According to Julia Ansley of NBC News, “Five or six Secret Service agents have testified before Jan. 6 grand jury, sources say. It is not known what the agents’ proximity to Trump was on Jan. 6 or what information they may have provided to the grand jury.”

Roughly five or six agents have appeared, the sources said, in compliance with subpoenas they received. It is not known what the agents’ proximity to Trump was on Jan. 6 or what information they may have provided to the grand jury.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the events of Jan. 6 is separate from his probe that led to Trump’s recent indictment in Florida for the handling of classified documents. Sources told NBC News that about 24 Secret Service agents appeared before the grand jury that considered that case in Washington before the case moved to Florida.

A spokeswoman for the Secret Service declined to comment.

While the exact content of their subpoenas and appearances is not known, Secret Service agents who were close to Trump on Jan. 6 may be able to confirm, deny or provide more details on a story first told by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee in Congress.

Józef Chełmoński, Indian Summer, 1875

Lisa Needham from Public Notice writes about “The Breathtaking hypocrisy of Alito”,” referring to him as “a Fox News talking head masquerading as a Supreme Court justice.” The corruption is strong in this one. Alito’s WSJ piece was an affront to anyone who appreciates the truth.

This isn’t the first time Alito sought out a media audience that would be receptive to his claims. Alito is carving a very Trumpian path for himself these days — inherently combative, outraged that anyone could have the audacity to question his decisions, and carefully enclosed in a right-wing media bubble. Imagine the endless howls if Justice Sonia Sotomayor ran to MSNBC to do a media hit every time someone questioned her integrity or one of the court’s decisions. That’s essentially what Alito is doing here.

Alito is brazenly partisan, but gets mad when called out on it

Well, that’s about it.  Considering last week,  this is a relatively slow news day. Take care this weekend, and avoid the heat if you’re in the South. Texas may set records and appears to be stuck in a building heatwave. I just hope they don’t send it our way.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?