U.S. Supreme Court Credit: Image by Mark Thomas from Pixabay
The Amsterdam News
We are not surprised, nor should you be upon learning on Thursday that the Supreme Court, at least its conservative members, rejected a lower-court ruling that said the district discriminated against Black voters.
In a 6 to 3 vote, a margin we have endured again and again, the Court held that South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature did nothing wrong in redistricting when it strengthened Rep. Nancy Mace’s hold on the district by moving 30,000 Democratic-leaning Black residents of Charleston out of the district.
In a state that was pivotal in Biden’s 2020 victory, it is a troubling signal of what may happen in other regions. President Biden immediately responded. “The Supreme Court’s decision today (Thursday) undermines the basic principle that voting practices should not discriminate on account of race and that is wrong,” he said.
Justice Samuel Alito, himself charged with flying the American flag upside down, wrote the majority opinion, criticizing the lower-court judges for their “misguided approach.” In effect, he agreed with the state that partisan politics, not race, was a major factor in the decision.
The decision may not have much impact on the upcoming presidential election, though it could be crucial in the South Carolina legislature. We are reminded of the 2013 Shelby v. Holder case in which the court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ruling that Sections 4 and 5 were unconstitutional.
A lower court had ordered South Carolina to redraw the district after it found that the state used race as a proxy for partisan affiliation in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Race and politics, as we have come to learn in America, are inextricably linked, like Trump to the Proud Boys.
To this end, we agree wholeheartedly with the dissenting justices and their warning that the court was insulating states from claims of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.
“And so it goes,” as one great American writer mused.
Reprinted from the Amsterdam News
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