David Pepper Profile picture
Jan 17, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
THREAD

Re-reading some history on this MLK day.

I read all of Robert Caro a number of years ago. No better biography written.

So when I hear Portman, LaRose, Romney and others oppose the “federal takeover” of voting rights, I knew it sounded familiar.

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Indeed, that was the precise framing used by the Southern segregationists dedicated to stopping any and all civil rights legislation…but who knew they could no longer appeal to openly racist sentiments as their forerunners had

So they always grounded their obstruction…

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in the less charged narrative of a “federal takeover;” a takeover by outsiders; that the problems were already being solved within the states with no need for “federal interference.”

(And we know that those problems were NOT being solved)

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By eschewing the racist rhetoric of Southern predecessors, the “federal takeover” frame also made it easier for non-southern allies to join the cause of stopping civil rights legislation from passing.

It was a “vastly more effective” strategy.

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But as Caro points out, the impact was the same.

Those decades of obstruction rendered a cost on the Black citizens of the South in particular…a cost of “tears and plain and blood,” as even anti-lynching laws didn’t pass

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So as you hear “genteel” politicians of today throw around the term “federal takeover” as they oppose voting rights, but praise MLK, know that they are not only taking the 30s-60s segregationists’ side, they are adopting the most effective play from that segregation playbook

END

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More from @DavidPepper

Apr 23
🚨

An Empty Chair Town Hall…In JD Vance’s Hometown

A 🧵

Boy, was American democracy on display last night in JD Vance’s hometown—Middletown, Ohio.

Patriotism at its best.

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But even though he was invited in numerous ways—including certified mail, so we know he got the invite—Warren Davidson, the House member for the community and the (highly gerrymandered) Eighth Congressional district, didn’t show up.

He missed out.

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We even left a chair for him, but it sat empty for two hours.

But that didn’t stop hundreds from coming from multiple counties….and we had a town hall anyway!

And it was electric.

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Read 15 tweets
Apr 20
🚨 🚨

Alito Whines

Justice Alito released his dissent in the North Texas case, complaining that:

1) The Court acted before the appellate court below had ruled, and even though it was apparently planning to rule soon

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2) The Court ordered without having heard from the government—only from the plaintiffs; and the Government had no chance to respond at the lower level either

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3. The government had told the district court that no flights were imminent, and the plaintiffs had not proved that they were.

Here’s his closing paragraph:

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Read 5 tweets
Apr 19
🚨 🚨

I always read @steve_vladeck — here’s what he wrote about the Supreme Court’s early morning order: “at least initially, this strikes me as a massively important—and revealing—intervention by the Supreme Court, for at least three reasons:”

1/ Image
1) “the Court didn’t wait at all….This may seem like a technical point, but it underscores how seriously the Court, or at least a majority of it, took the urgency of the matter.”

2/
2) “the Court didn’t hide behind any procedural technicalities…Here, though, the Court jumped right to the substantive relief the applicants sought—again, reinforcing not just the urgency of the issue, but its gravity.”

3/
Read 5 tweets
Apr 18
🚨

Not long ago, I described how one of the most respected conservative judges in the nation during my law school days was J. Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig, of the Fourth Circuit, was often on the short list to be a Supreme Court Justice,

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and considered a top “feeder” judge to prized Supreme Court clerkships, especially for members of the Federalist Society.

So in recent years, as Judge Luttig has raised alarms about Trump’s excesses, and the fraying of our national rule of law, we should all pay attention.

2/
But he wasn’t the only Fourth Circuit star at the time.

There is another: Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit—a Reagan appointee—has also been among the most highly regarded conservative jurists in the nation for a generation.

3/
Read 21 tweets
Apr 5
🚨

If you’re continuously stunned by the behavior of gerrymandered GOP representatives in the world of Citizens United, don’t be.

Here’s how to think of them:

They are no longer public servants.

Improving public outcomes is not their goal. Nor do they do better in life…

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…by serving the public interest.

In fact, if they serve the public interest, they will likely be primaried. And lose.

Think of them as the servants of certain private interests. See that they are in public office to use public power to benefit those private interests.

2/
That’s why public outcomes consistently fall in the places they control (such as gerrymandered red states like Ohio), while certain interests seem to always gain.

When those public outcomes fall, it doesn’t impact them at all.

Because they’re in districts they can’t lose.

3/
Read 7 tweets
Apr 3
🚨 🚨

United Defiance or Divided Compliance?

A 🧵

Two sets of institutions— each central parts of the infrastructure of a functioning democracy—find themselves facing a similar dilemma.

Higher ed institutions, and law firms.

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In case people question the centrality of these institutions’ roles in our democracy, know that Trump and Vance fully understand:

That’s why Vance has declared universities and professors the enemy to what he and his allies seek to achieve.

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And it’s why Trump has declared war on some law firms—because he knows that, in our system of justice, robust representation of both sides (including the side holding the government or political figures accountable) is essential. Without that balance, the system collapses.

3/
Read 28 tweets

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