Courts

Supreme Court Decisions Only Matter To Republicans When They Go Their Way

Yup. It's Alabama again.

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Election In Usa – Voting At The Ballot BoxEverybody knows that rules are rules — simple as that. Unless of course your attempt at racial gerrymandering doesn’t work; then, it only makes sense to invoke the totally legitimate and not made-up independent state legislature theory. And if, for whatever reason, the Supreme Court decides that state legislatures don’t actually have authority over state courts, then that’s that. That’s one of the things about the rule of law — laws don’t only bind when you like them. Unfortunately, that isn’t one of the things true about contemporary republicanism.

Some of you may think that there is no need to set off the alarms. Do we even know that the new map will also cut off Black people from being able to vote? And to those people, I say you must not have seen this:

If buying a Supreme Court justice or two… or three… or four doesn’t work, the right has an impressive way of bypassing the rules while heavily insisting on being the ones to enforce them. Remember when they were trying to use “constitutional sheriffs” to bypass the rulings they didn’t like?

Constitutional sheriffing is an admittedly thorny road. When I wrote about its use on an issue I cared about, I at least had enough decency to admit that it requires treading complicated waters that get muddied really quickly when it’s about the stuff you don’t like as much. Good luck finding that transparency on the other side:

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If only there was an act of some sort to protect the rights of voters. A voting rights act, if you will. Oh yeah, the Court basically got rid of that. Call me crazy, but I think the majority opinion said something about no longer needing such preemptive measures? Bet whoever wrote that is feeling really smart right about now.

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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