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Jackson: Supreme Court frontrunner
The new hard-right supreme court super-majority is settling in for years of political and judicial mischief. The Atlantic looked at supreme court history and the perils of a new court with an 1890s perspective.
A court retirement by one of the remnant liberals has been announced; President Biden is about to fill the vacancy on the court created by the planned retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, a centrist member of the Democrat-appointed minority.
Biden has already announced the appointee will be one of several well-known African-American women serving on lower courts. The frontrunner is believed to be the highly-qualified Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently serving on the DC circuit.
Headed for the court are the decisions of state and federal judges striking down, as racial gerrymanders, the latest congressional redistricting by states. The supreme court responded by reinstating an egregious Alabama racial gerrymander.
In a demonstrably partisan election-year interference, a 5-4 majority of the court used its "shadow docket" to lift a stay unanimously granted by a special three-judge federal court. Now, challenged districts whose legality is yet to be decided may be implemented in this year's elections.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberals; perhaps he now regrets personally gutting the Voting Rights Act 1965 in the infamous 2013 decision, Shelby County v Holder, another Alabama case.
It's only one lost seat for the Democrats, but five Republican-appointed justices couldn't resist the opportunity to put their thumbs on the scale in an election year .
Court observer Linda Greenhouse called it the moment the court "crossed the Rubicon" of partisan activism; the court is now on track to completely hollow out the VRA before the 2024 election.
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