SCOTUS' conservative majority makes a surprise decision

[Ana the Ist]

No.

I suspected as much....but figured I'd give you a chance anyway.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

I suspected as much....but figured I'd give you a chance anyway.

That's sweet of you.

 

[Ana the Ist]

That's sweet of you.

I'm an optimist when it comes to my fellow man.

 

[essentialsaltes]

OP is Alabama, but similar nonsense is going on in Louisiana. It's more complicated than an episode of Soap, but...

Supreme Court agrees with delay on drawing new Louisiana congressional map​

Louisiana is one of several states where battles over redistricting continue after the 2020 Census. The outcome of those battles could impact which party controls the House of Representatives after the 2024 elections.

The Louisiana case is something of a legal quagmire. Last year, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick found that the map enacted by the Republican-led legislature dilutes the power of the state’s Black voters and probably violates the Voting Rights Act.

The judge directed the legislature to draw a new map. But it did not, and the legal battle was renewed.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court put the case on hold while it considered a similar one from Alabama [the OP]; the 2022 congressional elections took place under the map approved by the legislature.

The Supreme Court also released its hold on the Louisiana case, sending it back to lower courts. [where the original Judge Dick would be trying to sort things out]

But at the state’s request, a different panel of the 5th Circuit stepped in with a command that Dick stop proceedings in the case, in part because she had not given the Louisiana legislature another opportunity to draw a new map.

The legislature imposed its map over a veto from Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and has not shown interest in creating a new one.

[And now SCOTUS has agreed that the legislature be given an opportunity to do what it's not showing any signs of doing.

Will the legislature be able to run out the clock and use the defective map again in 2024? Stay tuned.]

 

[Always in His Presence]

Kavanaugh was brought in to kill Roe. He did that. Nuw he feels free to vote his conscience.

FWIW. He voted his conscience BOTH times.

This is just more evidence that the Court is acting independent of party lines and looking at each case on its merit.

 

[essentialsaltes]

FWIW. He voted his conscience BOTH times.

That's funny, I thought they were supposed to vote in accordance with the law.

 

[DaisyDay]

FWIW. He voted his conscience BOTH times.

This is just more evil fence that the Court is acting independent of party lines and looking at each case on its merit.

Evil fence? I am guessing “evil farce”?

Either way, it is a striking phrase.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Evil fence? I am guessing “evil farce”?

Either way, it is a striking phrase.

Evidence - stoopid spell check - thanks for catching that.

 

[Always in His Presence]

That's funny, I thought they were supposed to vote in accordance with the law.

Can the two not be the same?

 

[Whyayeman]

Can the two not be the same?

Well, yes, but not always and not necessarily. There must be room for conscientious objection in a free society.

Supreme Courts have a hand in making and changing the law in both our constitutions. That is their function. The controversy over US abortion law is a good case in point. The law was upheld then it was changed. The only thing that was different was the composition of the Supreme Court.

 

[Always in His Presence]

s

 

[Always in His Presence]

Weren't you mocking my typo the other day?

Yup and now I am mocking my typo - what is your complaint about me personally this time?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Florida too.

Florida judge rules DeSantis’ redistricting map unconstitutional over impact on Black voters​

Central to the case is former U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, D-Fla., whose district splintered under the new map. The lawmaker, who is black, had previously enjoyed support from a wide base of Black voters in the district, but he lost his race by 20 points under the new map.

Republicans in the Florida legislature had previously introduced a redistricting map that likely would have allowed Lawson to win re-election, but the DeSantis administration put forward its own version of the map and vowed to veto any other.

Whoops!

Florida appeals court reverses ruling on DeSantis’s congressional maps​

The appeals court said the lower court misapplied precedent, and that the suit challenging the maps should have been dismissed.

A 2015 Florida Supreme Court case ruled that state Republicans violated the amendments in their 2010 congressional maps, focusing on districts surrounding Jacksonville, leading the court to force a new set of district boundaries.

The lower court threw out these maps in September — citing the 2015 Florida Supreme Court case. But the appeals court decided Friday that the case was not binding precedent and should not have been relied upon, instead leaning on other factors.

The ruling means that all of North Florida’s congressional districts — all of which are [now] held by Republicans — will remain in effect for the 2024 elections unless the case is again overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.

 

[essentialsaltes]

OP is Alabama, but similar nonsense is going on in Louisiana. It's more complicated than an episode of Soap, but...

Supreme Court agrees with delay on drawing new Louisiana congressional map​

The Louisiana case is something of a legal quagmire. Last year, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick found that the map enacted by the Republican-led legislature dilutes the power of the state’s Black voters and probably violates the Voting Rights Act.

The judge directed the legislature to draw a new map. But it did not, and the legal battle was renewed.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court put the case on hold while it considered a similar one from Alabama [the OP]; the 2022 congressional elections took place under the map approved by the legislature.

The Supreme Court also released its hold on the Louisiana case, sending it back to lower courts. [where the original Judge Dick would be trying to sort things out]

But at the state’s request, a different panel of the 5th Circuit stepped in with a command that Dick stop proceedings in the case, in part because she had not given the Louisiana legislature another opportunity to draw a new map.

The legislature imposed its map over a veto from Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and has not shown interest in creating a new one.

[And now SCOTUS has agreed that the legislature be given an opportunity to do what it's not showing any signs of doing.

Will the legislature be able to run out the clock and use the defective map again in 2024? Stay tuned.]

I've gotten lost, but...

Federal judges strike down La. congressional map with second Black-majority district​

The ruling is the latest in a broader set of legal challenges to electoral maps across the South. The outcome of these suits is likely to play a crucial role in deciding which party controls the House next year. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon in a South Carolina case and could get involved in the Louisiana case.

In Tuesday’s 2-1 ruling, thepanel found that the redistricting map approved by the Louisiana legislature, in a measure known as Senate Bill 8, which established a second majority-Black congressional district in the state, “violates the Equal Protection Clause [of the 14th Amendment] as an impermissible racial gerrymander.”

[plot twist: adding a second black district is unfair to non-black people] "Almost immediately after the legislature approved the new district with a Black majority, people who described themselves as “non-African American voters” sued in a different federal court. They argued the new map violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The panel on Tuesday agreed with those voters."]

The panel will convene on May 6 to discuss the remedial process and must decide what maps to put in place for this fall.

The map that was struck down had been approved by the state legislature in January, after a federal court found that the existing map likely illegally diminished Black voting power.

Its ruling puts the state in an untenable spot because one congressional plan has been found to violate the Constitution and another to likely violate the Voting Rights Act

 

[essentialsaltes]

I've gotten lost, but...

Federal judges strike down La. congressional map with second Black-majority district​

The ruling is the latest in a broader set of legal challenges to electoral maps across the South. The outcome of these suits is likely to play a crucial role in deciding which party controls the House next year. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon in a South Carolina case and could get involved in the Louisiana case.

Topsy Turvy World

Supreme Court allows second majority-Black district in Louisiana over liberal dissents​

The Supreme Court paused a chaotic legal fight over Louisiana’s congressional districts in a brief order Wednesday that will likely allow the state to use a map in this year’s election that creates a second majority-Black district and benefits Democrats.

The court’s three liberal justices publicly dissented from the decision.

But the decision may represent something of a pyrrhic victory for voting rights groups who fear the court’s justification for allowing the new map could have far-reaching consequences in future redistricting battles.

Purcell principle politics​

Louisiana officials specifically asked the Supreme Court last week to rely on a legal doctrine known as the Purcell principle, which it sometimes invokes to stay out of last-minute election lawsuits. The majority cited Purcell in its brief order Wednesday but did not otherwise explain its reasoning.

In a brief dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said it was premature for the Supreme Court to intervene in the case. She said that Purcell “has no role to play here.”

“Rather than wading in now, I would have let the District Court’s remedial process run its course before considering whether our emergency intervention was warranted,” Jackson wrote. Jackson, in other words, would have waited for the lower courts or the state Legislature to draw a new map.

So we get this as a reasonable legal map for use in 2024:

 

[essentialsaltes]

Supreme Court refuses to allow Alabama to use disputed map for 2024​

Alabama essentially had asked the Supreme Court to revisit the issue of voting rights in the state only months after the justices unexpectedly rejected the earlier version of Alabama’s congressional districting map, citing the landmark civil rights law.

There were no noted dissents in the order.

OK, back to Alabammy

Alabama ‘purposely’ diluted Black votes with congressional plan, court finds​

With the finding, the court said it would consider whether to put Alabama under a Voting Rights Act provision that would require it to get federal approval of its congressional plans going forward.

Durn liberal activist judges.

The three-judge panel – made up of a former President Bill Clinton-appointee and two appointees of President Donald Trump – said that its conclusion that Alabama was acting with a discriminatory intent was “unusual” but not a “particularly close call.”

“This record thus leaves us in no doubt that the purpose of the design of the 2023 Plan was to crack Black voters across congressional districts in a manner that makes it impossible to create two districts in which they have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, and thereby intentionally perpetuate the discriminatory effects of the 2021 Plan,” the court said.

The legal war over Alabama’s congressional map has waged for nearly half a decade. The 2020 redistricting cycle was the first since the passage of the Voting Rights Act that Alabama and other states in the South were not required to get so-called “preclearance” for the maps.

 

[DaisyDay]

OK, back to Alabammy

Alabama ‘purposely’ diluted Black votes with congressional plan, court finds​

With the finding, the court said it would consider whether to put Alabama under a Voting Rights Act provision that would require it to get federal approval of its congressional plans going forward.

Durn liberal activist judges.

The three-judge panel – made up of a former President Bill Clinton-appointee and two appointees of President Donald Trump – said that its conclusion that Alabama was acting with a discriminatory intent was “unusual” but not a “particularly close call.”

“This record thus leaves us in no doubt that the purpose of the design of the 2023 Plan was to crack Black voters across congressional districts in a manner that makes it impossible to create two districts in which they have an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, and thereby intentionally perpetuate the discriminatory effects of the 2021 Plan,” the court said.

The legal war over Alabama’s congressional map has waged for nearly half a decade. The 2020 redistricting cycle was the first since the passage of the Voting Rights Act that Alabama and other states in the South were not required to get so-called “preclearance” for the maps.

But there is no systemic racism in America.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

But there is no systemic racism in America.

One thing I learned going to school in Alabama in the 80s, Black people are perfectly fine with White people in charge.

 

[iluvatar5150]

One thing I learned going to school in Alabama in the 80s, Black people are perfectly fine with White people in charge.

Who wants all that responsibility?

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Who wants all that responsibility?

Exactly