Patrick Semansky / AP, file
Light illuminates part of the Supreme Court building at dusk on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 16, 2022.
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Racism and discrimination aren’t exclusive to the South or to the Republican Party, but Republicans in the former Confederate States of America do have a knack for bold attempts to limit the constitutional rights of underrepresented communities. A recent example is the Alabama GOP’s efforts to gerrymander districts for the purpose of diluting and diminishing Black votes.
While federal law does not prohibit legislative districts that result in underrepresentation of minority races or ethnicities, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does prohibit states from drawing boundaries with a “racially discriminatory motivation” or “invidious purpose.”
The Alabama GOP’s attempt was so blatant that neither a panel of Trump-appointed federal appellate court judges nor conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Brett Kavanaugh could ignore the clear racial discriminatory motivation behind the maps. They joined with the court’s three liberals to hold that the Alabama GOP’s maps violate Section 2 by illegally limiting the ability of Alabama’s Black citizens to elect the representatives of their choice.
Alabama Republicans drew districts that took Black people from one part of the state and matched them with Black people from other parts of the state. The GOP packed as many Black people as possible into an irregularly shaped district creating an district outline that resembles Medusa’s hair, its snake-like tendrils stretching and bending as they grasp for far-away lands.
Simultaneously, Republican strategists used similarly sophisticated map-drawing techniques to disperse the remaining Black population as equally as possible among the remaining districts, separating neighbors to ensure that no other districts had a substantial Black population.
The final result was the creation of six majority white districts and one separate (but we’re sure the GOP would argue equal) majority Black district. You’ll recall from high school civics that the dishonest “separate but equal” justification for racial segregation was outlawed more than a half-century ago. Despite the high court’s decision to strike down the maps, in some ways, the damage is already done.
A three-judge panel that included two Trump appointees declared the maps unconstitutional in 2022 but they were allowed to remain in place while awaiting an appeal before the Supreme Court. That effectively handed one more vote to Kevin McCarthy’s razor slim majority in the House of Representatives as a result of the 2022 midterm elections.
Moreover, the contemporary Supreme Court has done little to rein in GOP efforts to disenfranchise voters. The 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act’s pre-clearance requirements that allowed federal review of changes to voting laws or practices. Without federal oversight, Republican leaders have succeeded in enacting numerous laws that make it more difficult for marginalized voters to meaningfully participate in elections.
GOP voter-suppression tactics include closing voter registration and voter ID offices in communities with higher percentages of Black, brown, low-income people including seniors, and college students. These demographics are less likely to have access to reliable transportation and more likely to support Democratic candidates than their whiter, wealthier and non-student counterparts.
Republicans have also fought for strict limitations on convenient methods of voting such as absentee, early voting and ballot drop boxes that make it easier for people with inflexible work hours or those with multiple jobs or childcare responsibilities to vote. Unsurprisingly, these policies also disproportionately impact low-income people and communities of color.
Independents and moderates have long argued that both major political parties are guilty of partisan brinkmanship and being too beholden to wealthy special interests. But only the Republican Party is trying to win elections by ensuring that American citizens who disagree with them aren’t able or allowed to vote.
As if that weren’t bad enough, they’re doing it by targeting the people working the hardest to pursue the American dream, including working parents and low-income people working multiple jobs while trying to climb the socioeconomic ladder.
The Republican Party should be ashamed of itself and its cruel attacks on democracy and the American dream. Moderate Republicans still clinging to the memories and ghosts of GOP past must reckon with the new reality of a party that has aligned itself with white supremacy in a cruel and anti-democratic attempt to win at all costs.
As for the Supreme Court, five of the nine justices reached the correct decision on voting rights this week, but they should be embarrassed that the decision was not unanimous. Kavanaugh should be embarrassed that he allowed such blatantly gerrymandered maps to stand during the 2022 midterms and Roberts should reflect on the heavy role he played in weakening the Voting Rights Act to begin with.
This week’s decision is a good first step towards restoring the faith and trust of the American people, but it is not enough.The court must continue to do better moving forward, including demanding accountability and ethics standards for its conservative flank and being stalwart champions for voting rights in the United States.
