Data in justice department filing quoted by Samuel Alito in his opinion relied on unusual methodology, a Guardian analysis has found
The claims Samuel Alito, a supreme court justice, made about voter turnout in Louisiana in a landmark Voting Rights Act case were based on a misleading data analysis, a Guardian review has found.
In his opinion gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act last week, Alito said that Black voter turnout had exceeded white voter turnout in two of the five most recent presidential elections, both nationally and in Louisiana. Alito’s claim was copied almost verbatim from a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the justice department. It was a critical data point Alito used to make the argument that the kind of discrimination that once made the Voting Rights Act necessary no longer exists.
But a review of turnout and racial data in Louisiana reveals that assertion relies on an unusual methodology. The justice department brief that Alito cited calculated Black and white voter turnout in Louisiana as a proportion of the total population of each racial group over the age of 18. Such an approach is not preferred by experts in calculating statewide turnout because the general over-18 population may include non-citizens, people with felony convictions and others who cannot legally vote.But it does yield Alito’s conclusion that Black voter turnout exceeded white voter turnout in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections in Louisiana.
It was a critical data point Alito used to make the argument that the kind of discrimination that once made the Voting Rights Act necessary no longer exists.
I’m sorry, when did the necessity of a law become the new litmus test for constitutionality?
This court is fucked. Bunch of traitors to the constitution.
100%. The court is supposed to be the last bastion of defenders of the constitution.
This is the court that cited a 17th century bullshit about quickening like they were sucking Medieval Highlander dick for justification on Dobbs, and then in the same breath refused to also acknowledge that terminating pregnancy before Highlander There Can Be Only One, was common and accepted practice.
These Conservative political activist judges don’t care about being consistent or data while they’re passing their conservative agenda from the bench.
“Lies”.
The word you’re looking for is “lies”.
In all seriousness, like what is going to happen when no one trusts the courts… like they rule puppies are illegal and people just will still have puppies. Make a rule that ice cream isn’t allowed to be consumed on Sundays and people just do it.
If the courts are a joke, then so are the rules?
I don’t think anyone will like what happens if even the illusion of a functional system of laws is well and truly swept away. When enough people believe that a system is working, even if it isn’t working but they believe that it is, then life can more or less continue in a vaguely tolerable fashion. When that belief is taken away, things tend to get weird.
Edit: For the record, I think that most lower class and an ever-increasing number of middle class people already live in that reality. I think it’s the people with the most to lose who will find out just how bad it can get if the imaginary glue holding society together evaporates away in a puff of searing populist anger.
When and if democrats regain enough power to actually do stuff supreme court reform should be high on the list of things to tackle.
Also jail those robe-wearing motherfuckers. Or at least force their retirement, reverse all their fascist decisions and sign term limits into law.
Fuck yeah.
Top of the list. No chance for change with this regressive anchor around the neck of this country
After this ruling that will be high impossible. Redistricting existing minority areas in republican owned states will generate a new 27 safe seats while simultaneously removing Democratic ones. They’re scrambling to do that right now, starting with Louisiana.
Gerrymandering has the side effect of spreading safe districts thin, especially in situations like right now. Remember it backfired during the depression and we very well may be in a greater depression at this point
Yeah it will be a lot harder to take the house, senate, and presidency which is what they would need to do it. One can hope!
No more fucking shadow docket
As if the correct data was relevant to their decision anyway.
So black voter turnout was highest in 2012…
Hmm 🤔 I wonder why that may have happened???
Hey, this confuses me mathematically. If many blacks were disenfranchised, then counting the disenfranchised among the voting rate would make it go down a lot. But it only goes down one percentage point!
