The first way that the Court can negatively affect voting rights is by holding that democracy-enhancing laws like the Voting Rights Act or campaign contribution limits are unconstitutional. The second way is by upholding state laws making it harder to register and vote. /2
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Especially if coupled with new citizenship question on census, this could have a very negative effect on minority populations and large states with non-citizens. /13
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The Court already seems poised to uphold stricter voter identification laws, and potentially documentary proof of citizenship laws, cutbacks on early voting and eased voter registration rules and other rules passed in red states to make it harder to vote /14
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So what can be done? --Political struggle can often help, such as the ballot measure in Florida to make it easier for felons who have completed their sentences to have their voting rights restored /15
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---States like North Carolina, which has seen a terrible run of restrictive voting rules passed by the general assembly, need an end to the veto-proof legislative majority
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---Reform needs to be mandated within the confines of what the Court declares. Public financing of campaigns, at least for now, seems safe if it could be enacted. ---Congress could outlaw partisan gerrymandering if there were the political will
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But the first step of the battle is educating and organizing about the stakes in the current Supreme Court battle. I've long sounded the alarm: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/supreme-court-greatest-civil-rights-cause … but until Kennedy left few outside law paid attention /18
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I talk about the stakes on voting rights here
@slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/justice-kennedys-successor-will-wreak-havoc-on-voting-rights-and-democracy.html … /19Show this thread -
And I've demonstrated what it means for President Trump to appoint another Scalia to the Court on the question of voting rights in great detail in this book on Scalia's legacy https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Contradictions-Antonin-Politics-Disruption/dp/0300228643/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516904231&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+l.+hasen … /20
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Things may get worse before they get better. Who knows if Thomas will go, and if Ginsburg and Breyer can hold on until there's a new Presidential election. Republicans losing their majority in the Senate might stop appointment of most extreme
#SCOTUS candidates after midterms /21Show this thread -
But as I wrote here
@Slate, this is a moment for political action, not complacency, even if the battle against a new Trump#SCOTUS nominee will almost certainly be lost /22https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/trump-will-replace-kennedy-with-a-scalia-clone-only-one-thing-might-stop-him.html …Show this thread -
Political organizing now can help down the line later, as there will be many battles to preserve voting and democracy ahead. It won't be easy, but our country and the promise of what it can be (someday and again), demands that we try. /end
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End of conversation
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