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This piece first appeared in our weekly publication, The Fallout. Join it right here.
It’s Supreme Court docket choice time!
The Court docket served up some stunning excellent news for voting rights final week in Allen v. Milligan by preserving Part 2 of the Voting Rights Act in place. My colleague Imani Gandy and I talked in regards to the case, which entails some of the wildly gerrymandered electoral maps ever, on the podcast when it was then known as Merrill v. Milligan.
In a state the place over 25 % of residents are Black, Alabama conservatives tried to create an electoral map with just one majority Black district. The map was so discriminatory that even Chief Justice John Roberts, who has spent his total profession making an attempt to undermine the Voting Rights Act, couldn’t endorse it. The ruling is a uncommon vivid spot from this Court docket, and one we shouldn’t take with no consideration.
The choice can also be excellent news for abortion rights. One of many essential classes to emerge from the Court docket overturning Roe v. Wade is that abortion is a successful poll difficulty. In elections since Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group, voters have overwhelmingly gone to the polls in help of abortion rights and entry. So any choice that doesn’t additional erode voting rights is an effective choice for bodily autonomy.
Whether or not we prefer it or not, constructing again abortion rights and entry throughout the nation goes to rely partially on electoral politics. These electoral wins assist construct the civic infrastructure required to rebuild entry to care. It’s a grind, and a vital one. However the extra individuals who can vote on abortion of their states, the higher.
The Milligan choice additionally offers progressives and Democrats an opportunity to attempt to elect extra of us to Congress who can strengthen the Voting Rights Act, some extent Elie Mystal made within the Nation.
It’s uncommon to get a second likelihood from the Roberts Court docket, however that’s how progressives and Democrats may view this choice—a second likelihood to return the Voting Rights Act to its previous prominence and reform the federal courts in order that we as a rustic don’t discover ourselves held captive by a handful of rogue conservative judges.
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