John Roberts signals intention to finish the job
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The bait: John Roberts rules Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, but don’t worry, “Section 2 is permanent, applies nationwide, and is not at issue in this case.”
The switch — “whoops, now that you mention it Section 2 is unconstitutional too. In fact Section 2 of the 15th Amendment violates the 15th and 14th Amendments.”
The Supreme Court will consider whether the intentional creation of a majority-minority congressional district violates the 14th or 15th Amendments. If the answer is yes, SCOTUS will effectively declare that what remains of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. This is very, very ominous.
[image or embed]— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) Aug 1, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Cf also. John Roberts’s de facto holding that the only thing about Brown v. Board that remains in force is to make some attempts to desegregate schools unconstitutional.
…the impact of this would also be to super-charge Rucho:
If the Supreme Court does this, Southern Republicans in theory could gerrymander roughly 5-9 Black Dems into heavily white GOP congressional districts. That’s in addition to the 5 Texas Dems they’re targeting, though a SCOTUS ruling might come too late for new maps in 2026 elsewhere in the South
[image or embed]— Stephen Wolf (@stephenwolf.bsky.social) Aug 1, 2025 at 3:46 PM