Thread by @WendyRWeiser

1/ One of the principal legacies of the Roberts Court will be its systematic undermining of American democracy, greenlighting efforts to rig elections, ignoring gerrymandering, slashing voting rights, and shifting power from the many to the few. #Rucho #SCOTUS

2/ #Rucho is only the latest in a long string of recent #SCOTUS decisions undermining American democracy. Below are some of the biggies:

3/ In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Court struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, turning a blind eye to ongoing voting discrimination & preventing Congress from putting in place adequate protections against discrimination. #VRAA

4/ This ushered in a new wave of discriminatory voting laws and practices in many states. Multiple courts have found new laws were *intended* to undermine the voting power of people of color. brennancenter.org/analysis/shelb… #VRAA

5/ Five years earlier, in the Crawford case (2008), SCOTUS upheld an unfair voter ID law in a way that similarly ushered in a wave of voting restrictions, justified by the need to stop admittedly nonexistent forms of voter fraud. brennancenter.org/publication/vo…

6/ In #CitizensUnited (2010), #SCOTUS dealt a death blow to many limits on money in politics, ushering in an era of elections fueled by unlimited dark money from a small group of billionaires, corporations, and special interests.

7/ #CitizensUnited was part of a string of 5-4 #SCOTUS decisions gutting our nation’s campaign finance laws. It was a sharp shift in constitutional interpretation, overturning decades of precedent. brennancenter.org/publication/fi….

8/ Last year, in Abbott v. Perez, #SCOTUS set a legal standard that makes it easy for legislators to get away with unconstitutional race discrimination in redistricting when it upheld Texas maps almost identical to earlier maps found to be intentionally discriminatory.

9/ And today, in #Rucho, #SCOTUS ruled that federal courts cannot step in to protect voters from partisan gerrymanders that offend constitutional values.

10/ These cases mean that legislators in 2021 could have free reign to unfairly rig district lines unless voters or legislatures rein them in beforehand. #fairmaps #SCOTUS

11/ SCOTUS abdicated in the gerrymandering cases today, but voters can still solve the problem. In 2018 voters in 5 states adopted redistricting reforms by overwhelming majorities, and there are now active measures in 6 more. brennancenter.org/analysis/citiz… @brennancenter

12/ Earlier this year, the U.S. House passed #HR1, a historic package of democracy reforms that would expand voting access, end gerrymandering, and curb the grip of big money on our politics. #ForThePeople brennancenter.org/issues/democra….

13/ If adopted, #HR1 would transform redistricting, ending gerrymandering and making the process fairer and more transparent. #ForthePeople #fairmaps
brennancenter.org/blog/five-ways…

14/ #HR1 would do a lot of other essential things to fix our democracy too, as I testified earlier this year. brennancenter.org/analysis/testi…