Two different Supreme Court Rulings came down today. Both suck.
- They reinstated Arizona's discriminatory voter laws. They were appealed because, under Article 2 of the Voting Rights Act, you cannot introduce laws that burden or disenfranchise minority voters. They overturned it because losing 1 or 2% of the vote isn't a burden. It would, of course, have flipped Arizona to Trump instead of Biden, but that wasn't why they did it. No, they did it because even thought it WAS a burden, and DID effect minorities more than caucasian voters. It wasn't enough of a burden. A little cheating is fine.
- This bodes very poorly for other lawsuits against targeted to minority voting restrictions. They declined to say how much of a burden was too much.
- The court overturned California's law that "dark money" donations have to be disclosed. Dark Money is those funds that are unlimited (as opposed to donations to a single politician). Because individual and Corporations donate to Political Action Committees which are technically (but not really) not Candidate specific, California cannot require them to disclose donors. As for the "technicality", Trump's family and spokesperson actually pitched for PACs that supported Trump. Which is illegal, but we don't do shit about political illegality anymore.
- This is not only a Republican problem. To a lessor extent it is also a Democratic problem. This law means that as companies or people spend millions to revoke rights and get their guys elected, we - the people - aren't allowed to know what is being spent.
Again, this is life in the big leagues. Getting 3 Supreme Court Assignments in Trump's Term was a little cheating and a little luck of the draw. But had Hillary won, these would not have occurred (and abortion wouldn't be overturned next year).
So now it's up to Congress to pass legislation protecting voting rights, and voters to vote more Democrats in the senate at the mid-term elections. The latter will also help get a more liberal justice on the the SC.
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