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Ari Berman Profile picture
@AriBerman
Jul 1, 2021 • 13 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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SCOTUS conservative majority is quite literally making it easier to buy an election and harder to vote in one
In 2013 SCOTUS gutted Voting Rights Act. Since then 26 states have enacted new voter suppression laws

Now conservative majority shredding what remains of VRA, giving green-light to greatest rollback of voting rights since end of Reconstruction motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Key line from Kagan dissent: "Weaken the Voting Rights Act, and predictable consequences follow: yet a further generation of voter suppression laws"

That's exactly what Court has done by gutting VRA in 2013 & eviscerating what's left of law today
SCOTUS decision gutting what’s left of VRA shows how desperately For the People Act & John Lewis Voting Rights Act needed. Just like with VRA in 1965, only Congressional action can stop onslaught of voter suppression. And expand the court so it doesn't strike down new laws
If John Roberts had not gutted Voting Rights Act in 2013 voting restrictions in AZ upheld by SCOTUS today would’ve been blocked in the first place

26 states have enacted new voter suppression laws since Shelby County decision bit.ly/3w1ONCg
In 2013 when he gutted Section 5 of Voting Rights Act John Roberts wrote “our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in Section 2”

Now SCOTUS conservatives gutting Section 2. Their goal all along was to kill entire VRA
John Roberts has been trying to eviscerate Voting Rights Act for 40 years

As young lawyer in Reagan DOJ he led fight to gut Section 2 of law

In 2013 he wrote opinion gutting Section 5 of VRA

Every story today needs to highlight this politico.com/magazine/story…
Supreme Court enshrined Jim Crow by upholding poll taxes & literacy tests at end of Reconstruction

History repeating today

Roberts court has "completely turned its back on efforts to protect voting rights for communities of color"

motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Alito goes full Big Lie: "The strength of state interests—such as the strong and entirely legitimate state interest in preventing election fraud—served by a challenged voting rule is an important factor"

This language will be used to uphold all manner of voter suppression laws
Kagan's dissent begins with incredibly powerful opening: "If a single statute represents the best of America, it is the Voting Rights Act. It marries two great ideals: democracy and racial equality. And it dedicates our country to carrying them out."
In 1980 Supreme Court severely weakened Voting Rights Act. Congress overruled them (over objections of John Roberts), strengthen law & renewed it for 25 years

Congressional Dems need to do same thing to protect voting rights today motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
At end of dissent Kagan throws serious shade at John Roberts for writing "things have changed dramatically" when he gutted VRA in 2013

"Maybe some think that vote suppression is a relic of history—and so the need for a potent Section 2 has come and gone"
If you want to learn more about how Voting Rights Act transformed American democracy & why conservatives have been trying to gut it for 50 years, today is a great day to start reading Give Us the Ballot indiebound.org/book/978125009…

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More from @AriBerman

Ari Berman Profile picture
Dec 7, 2022
Huge case before SCOTUS today: Republicans want to reinstate extreme gerrymander in NC giving GOP 71-78% of House seats in state where Trump got 49.9% of vote & grant state legislatures unprecedented power to pass new gerrymanders & voter suppression laws motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Leonard Leo & Federalist Society engineered right-wing takeover of SCOTUS. Now they want court to give state legislatures king-like power to rig state & national elections. One anti-democratic system entrenching the other Image
A ruling that state legislatures could not be constrained by state courts or constitutions would eviscerate checks & balances, give heavily gerrymandered legislatures huge power to rig state & national politics & embolden them to attempt to overturn future election results
Read 5 tweets
Ari Berman Profile picture
Jan 28, 2022
SCOOP w/ @RyanLittleE: Georgia voters 45 times more likely to have mail ballot applications rejected & not vote in Nov 2021 vs 2020 after GOP passed new voting restrictions

That rate would've led to 38,000 fewer votes in 2020, 3x Biden's margin of victory motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
“States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever” Mitch McConnell claimed last year

Here are facts: "During municipal elections in Nov, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and not vote as a result—than in 2020"
Before he sided with GOP to kill voting rights bills Joe Manchin said: “​​We act like we’re going to obstruct people from voting. That’s not going to happen.”

4500% increase in rejected mail ballot applications in Georgia & 700% increase in Texas shows he is very wrong
Read 6 tweets
Ari Berman Profile picture
Jan 20, 2022
Stunning stat: 48 Democrats who supported reforming filibuster to pass voting rights bills represent 34 MILLION more Americans than 52 senators (all Republicans + Sinema/Manchin) who opposed it
48 senators who voted to reform filibuster represent 182 million Americans, 55% of US

52 senators who upheld filibuster represent 148 million Americans, 45% of US

This is why US Senate so broken

Data via @atausanovitch
“Manchin & Sinema allowed 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block a bill they both supported that would protect voting rights for tens of millions of Americans, reinforcing how filibuster has historically been used to block civil rights” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Read 6 tweets
Ari Berman Profile picture
Jan 13, 2022
Sinema & Manchin represent 2.8% of US population but allowing 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block voting rights bills supported by 70% of Americans that would protect voting access for tens of millions. US political system completely broken
“Sinema, by refusing to support changes to the filibuster, is now giving the anti-democratic party veto power over protecting democracy. She is saying it would be divisive and partisan to respond to a divisive and partisan effort to weaken democracy” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
GOP states have passed new voter suppression laws, gerrymandered maps & election subversion bills through simple majority, party-line votes yet Sinema & Manchin demand bipartisan supermajority to protect voting rights. This is how coup succeeds
motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Read 5 tweets
Ari Berman Profile picture
Jan 10, 2022
This week is one of most pivotal in history of American democracy. If Dems don’t pass federal legislation now to stop voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering & election subversion, GOP will make it impossible to have fair elections going forward motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Republicans not just suppressing votes & subverting fair elections, but trying to enshrine anti-democratic system where they hold power no matter the views of a majority of voters

“They are basically signing off on a political apartheid system” says @ericholder
It makes no sense that Republicans can pass voter suppression laws at state level with simple majority vote & confirm right-wing judges to uphold those laws with simple majority vote but Dems can’t protect voting rights with simple majority vote

This asymmetry must end
Read 6 tweets
Ari Berman Profile picture
Dec 6, 2021
Breaking: Justice Department files suit challenging extreme gerrymandered Texas redistricting maps
Under extreme gerrymandered Texas US House & state legislative maps:

Whites 40% population but control 60% districts

Latinos 39% of population but control 20% districts

Blacks 12% of population but control 2% districts

Asians 5% of population but control 0% districts
95% of population growth in Texas from communities of color during last decade but gerrymandered GOP maps increase # of majority white districts & decrease # of majority Latino/Black districts. Incredibly brazen racial gerrymandering motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Read 5 tweets

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