All posts tagged "Voting Rights"

President Donald Trump announced that he's nominating Lee Rudofsky to the U.S. Court of Appeals despite a questionable record.

On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Rudofsky will be nominated to serve on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, despite his record as a federal judge who ruled that private citizens can't sue under the Voting Rights Act.

Trump described Rudofsky as a "distinguished" federal judge during his time in Arkansas. "Lee will be a rock-solid defender of the Constitution on the Eighth Circuit," Trump wrote. Trump appointed Rudofsky to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in 2019....

Veteran journalist Dan Rather is warning that legislation that Trump is trying to push through threatens women's right to vote.

In a recent piece titled "The War on Women," Rather tried to lay out how the Trump administration is going after women's rights.

"Trump's campaign promise to protect women, 'whether the women like it or not,' has become more of a threat," Rather wrote. "His policies and executive orders undermine women's economic and reproductive freedoms while pushing them out of the workforce and into the home."...

Legal experts blasted Chief Justice John Roberts for his part in weakening the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its ability to block discrimination when district maps are drawn.

"For Chief Justice John Roberts, this is a huge asterisk on his legacy in such a bad way," journalist and lawyer Katie Phang said during an interview for the Contrarian with lawyer and professor Leah Litman. "He has had a series of really not good asterisks next to his name, but this, I think, is one of the biggest ones."

The 6-3 decision on Louisiana v. Callais came down on Wednesday. Phang described the decision as "clearing the way for the GOP to racially gerrymander us back to the days of Jim Crow voter suppression." ...

Trump gloated on Wednesday about a new Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which watered down the strength of the Voting Rights Act and is expected to allow increased gerrymandering and threats to minority representation.

"Today's 6-3 Supreme Court decision in the Callais case is a BIG WIN for Equal Protection under the Law as it returns the Voting Rights Act to its Original Intent, which was to protect against intentional Racial Discrimination," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. "Thank you to brilliant Justice Samuel Alito for authoring this important and appropriate Opinion. Congratulations!"

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s threat to derail his party’s agenda until Republicans ram through new voting restrictions in an expanded SAVE America Act has some key GOP lawmakers scratching their heads.

“It's his priority. I don't know how many others share it,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Raw Story at the Capitol. “It's hard to see it being a top 10 issue for people. It almost never comes up, and I talk to thousands of North Dakotans.”

Even so, the president’s far-right allies are all-in on his new calls to expand the SAVE Act beyond requiring proof of citizenship and an ID to vote federally. ...

If the U.S. Supreme Court issues a decision in a high-profile redistricting case within the next few weeks — likely weakening the Voting Rights Act, as experts anticipate — Republicans are poised to gerrymander as many as eight House seats in their favor ahead of November’s midterms, a nonpartisan political reform group warns in a new report.

Long-term effects could be more drastic, resulting in 15 or more districts gerrymandered to benefit the GOP in 2028, if the Supreme Court weakens Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 in its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, according to Issue One.

The Court heard oral arguments in the case involving racial gerrymandering in Louisiana late last year and could issue a decision anytime between now and June. ...