But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24 (NIV)
On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling on a 5-to-4 vote, deciding Alabama's 2022 congressional maps violated the Voting Rights Act. For the past 31 years, there has been only one majority Black congressional district in Alabama. Now this district, which stretches from Birmingham through Tuscaloosa to Montgomery and most of Alabama's Black Belt, is likely to be split to create a second majority Black district. (The state’s population is about 27% Black, but only one of seven Congressional districts is majority Black, or 14%.) Surprisingly, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh aligned with the court’s liberals in affirming the lower-court's ruling.
This is indeed a victory worthy of celebration. But also, a situation worthy of concern: How blatantly and flagrantly do civil rights have to be violated for a 5-4 ruling to squeak by out of today's Supreme Court, and justice to actually prevail?
In her Washington Post opinion piece, New York University School of Law professor Melissa Murray warns, "Yes, the court’s conservative supermajority failed to undermine voting rights. But this is not an unalloyed victory. As an initial matter, the decision does not strengthen the act, as some pundits claimed. It merely preserves the status quo. And the status quo is that this court, over the past 10 years, has severely hobbled the law and its protections for minority voters [emphasis ours]." Murray knows her subject matter; she is also the author of “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.”
Justice is open to everybody in the same way as the Ritz Hotel. ~Judge Sturgess, 1928, in The Observer, "Sayings of the Week," July 22nd, as quoted in W. Mansell, B. Meteyard, A. Thomson, A Critical Introduction to Law, 1995 (thanks Quote Garden)
See more about How Alabama discriminated against Black voters – visualized.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican and the state’s top election official, issued a statement, saying, “I am disappointed in today’s Supreme Court opinon but it remains the commitment of the Secretary of State’s Office to comply with all applicable election laws.”
Justice definitely isn't flowing like a river, but despite the best attempts by enemies of justice, diversity, and equity to dam it, it's still flowing... at least intermittently. Continue to fight the good fight.
Justices continue to think and can change. I am ever hopeful that if the court has a blind spot today, its eyes will be open tomorrow. ~Ruth Bader Ginsburg (thanks Quote Garden)
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