Meanwhile, a federal judge in Massachusetts struck down Trump’s executive order that would erect obstacles to voting. With the 2026 midterm elections just four months away, the Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by election day and received within five days thereafter. The court’s… Read more »
In perhaps its most insidious decision in nearly a century, the U.S. Supreme Court disemboweled Section 2 of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, the “crown jewel” of the U.S. civil rights movement. The VRA ended Jim Crow-era election procedures that precluded Black people from voting in the South through intimidation, literacy tests and poll… Read more »
The prohibition of racial discrimination in voting and the right to have absentee ballots counted are in grave peril. The Supreme Court appears poised to deal a severe blow to the fundamental right to vote in two cases this term. Louisiana v. Callais threatens the right to vote free from racial discrimination and Watson v. Republican National Committee will… Read more »
We may well see the elimination of the 11 Black-majority districts — all Democratic — in GOP-controlled Southern states. In what may prove to be the most consequential redistricting case to come before the Supreme Court, Louisiana is urging the court to gut the main provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) and ban any… Read more »
New rules in Georgia are worrisome but safeguards prevent rogue election officials from refusing to certify the results. After the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his allies denied that Joe Biden had won. To this day, election deniers refuse to accept that Trump lost the election. Efforts to thwart Biden from becoming president, including the Trump-inspired… Read more »
Only Sonia Sotomayor appears willing to obey the command of the Disqualification Clause of the 14th Amendment. Nearly 24 years ago, five right-wing members of the Supreme Court handed the presidency to George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore. Despite the conservatives’ hypocritical deference to the states on gun control, tobacco “rights,” disability rights and violence against women, the… Read more »
A federal court said only the government, not civil rights groups or individuals, can enforce the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act, which Congress passed to enforce the 15th Amendment, has been targeted by the right wing since it was enacted in 1965. In the last few years, the Supreme Court has weakened the… Read more »
Two-thirds of U.S. breaches of the civil and political rights covenant involve racial discrimination. AUnited Nations body has issued a damning report blasting the United States for its rampant violations of a major human rights treaty that it ratified in 1992. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) enshrines the rights to life,… Read more »
Voting rights and the protection of workers, consumers, health, safety and the environment are on the court’s docket. The 2023-2024 Supreme Court term will begin on Monday, October 2. Dominated by six right-wingers, the court has agreed to review cases in which voting rights, consumer protection, and the regulation of health and safety, workers’ rights… Read more »
The lawsuits cite the 14th Amendment, which says former officials who engage in insurrection may not serve as president. The lawsuit filed earlier this month by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on behalf of six Colorado voters provides a template that can and will be used in other states to keep Donald Trump off… Read more »