Today, the supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
As my colleague Sam Levine notes, at the heart of the case, Louisiana v Callais, was a question of how much lawmakers are allowed to consider race when they redraw districts to ensure that black voters are adequately represented.
In a 6-3 decision, split along partisan lines, the court struck down a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana, rendering ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.
The ruling gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that weaken the influence of black and other minority voters. It comes as Donald Trump has pushed for red states to redraw their congressional maps in ways that would help Republicans win more seats in this year’s elections.
A divided federal appeals court said Wednesday it will not grant a rare meeting of its active judges to hear an appeal of an $83 million verdict against President Donald Trump for defaming a magazine advice columnist over an encounter three decades ago.
The Supreme Court on April 29 threw out a congressional map in Louisiana that had been drawn to protect the voting power of Black residents, a decision that limits a landmark civil rights law.
A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is facing charges over an alleged scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Israeli authorities are using access to water as a weapon against Palestinians, including by systematically depriving people in Gaza of water in a campaign of collective punishment, according to a report released today by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Tamir Pardo, the former chief of Israel’s powerful Mossad intelligence agency, drew international attention on Monday by saying that what he witnessed during a tour of the Occupied West Bank reminded him of the treatment of the Jewish people during the Holocaust by Nazi Germany in the 1930s ad 40s.
An Israeli human rights group is demanding the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, after a court ordered his detention extended.
