Progressives Every Day: Alito Is Horny on Main (to Disenfranchise People)
Progressives Every Day: Alito Is Horny on Main (to Disenfranchise People)
I'm not even exaggerating
Welcome to a late Wednesday evening edition of Progressives Everywhere!
Sorry for the slight tardiness on this one, but I burned four hours just laughing at this:
It led me down a bit of an oppo research rabbit hole, which led to this tweet.
I also recorded a segment for SiriusXM Progress about down-ballot elections — it’ll air several times this weekend and I’ll pass along a link to my bit when it’s live. Oh, rent is due soon, so I also had a few projects I needed to finish.
Can you tell I have a horrible guilty conscience? I just love you all!
OK, now to the news.
Important News You Need to Know
Pennsylvania: Election crisis averted — for the moment, anyway.
The Supreme Court late Wednesday afternoon denied PA Republicans’ appeal of the decision it made last week to not overturn the state’s three-day absentee ballot extension. It’s good news — but it may not last for long.
Amy Coney Barrett didn’t participate in the deliberations, a spokesperson for the court said, not because she realizes she should recuse herself from all 2020 election decisions but instead because they needed to get a ruling out fast and she hasn’t been on the court long enough to pretend to consider the merits of the case before voting to disenfranchise people.
OK, that last bit was my version of things, but I was really just reading in between the lines. You can tell that it really chaps the asses of the court’s fringe-right conservative justices that they can’t just shut down the election right now. Justice Alito is thirsty to disenfranchise some people, judging by what he wrote about the case (Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh signed on to his screed). He all but declares that he thinks it’s BS that the PA Supreme Court should get to make any decisions about Pennsylvania state law (RIP federalism lol) and like a villain at the end of a cartoon, swears that he’ll be back!
It would be highly desirable to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the State Supreme Court’s decision before the election. That question has national importance, and there is a strong likelihood that the State Supreme Court decision violates the Federal Constitution.
…
For these reasons, the question presented by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision calls out for review by this Court—as both the State Republican and Democratic Parties agreed when the former applied for a stay. But I reluctantly conclude that there is simply not enough time at this late date to decide the question before the election. That does not mean, however, that the state court decision must escape our review. Although the Court denies the motion to expedite, the petition for certiorari remains before us, and if it is granted, the case can then be decided under a shortened schedule. In addition, the Court’s denial of the motion to expedite is not a denial of a request for this Court to order that ballots received after election day be segregated so that if the State Supreme Court’s decision is ultimately overturned, a targeted remedy will be available.
The dude is horny for disenfranchisement. And if Amy Coney Barrett decides to join for the next iteration of this decision, he’ll have the votes required to achieve that sweet, sweet high of throwing out ballots and trampling on democracy. It could make a huge difference in the election, too — there are still about a million unreturned absentee ballots in Pennsylvania.
Also of concern: How Pennsylvania could be impacted by another thirsty SCOTUS decision from the far-right justices. On Monday, Brett Kavanaugh put out a stupidly specious opinion that set the stage for the court to order millions of received absentee ballots to be tossed after midnight on Election Night. And in Pennsylvania, counties differ in how they’ll be counting mail ballots — Democratic-leaning counties plan on tallying them ASAP, while GOP-leaners seem like they’ll be waiting to do so until after in-person votes are counted.
Ironically, should SCOTUS pull the trigger on its ultimate disenfranchisement dream, it could actually help Joe Biden in Pennsylvania. It would not, however, do any favors for Democrats running to flip legislative districts in Republican-controlled counties. So, you know, another thing to dread!
North Carolina: It was basically the same deal for North Carolina this afternoon: The Supreme Court, again minus Amy Coney Barrett, decided not to overturn the nine (!) day absentee ballot extension in the state, much to the chagrin of the frothing conservatives on the court. Gorsuch is so pissed!
Whether they realize it or not, these cases illuminate how the GOP has structured the ouroboros of corruption that has kept them in power for the last ten years. The faux-federalists are desperately trying to empower state legislatures, which are controlled by Republicans only due to egregious gerrymandering… gerrymanders that the court itself green-lit last year.
I want to say that the court’s conservatives are going to regret making these arguments, because Democrats are on the verge of flipping some of these legislatures despite the gerrymanders. But the reality is that the conservatives on the court aren’t interested in consistency, legal theory, or fairness. Their only concern is doing whatever it takes to help Republicans keep their slimy hands on the power that is slipping through their fingers.
Early turnout: On the bright side, more than 72 million early votes have already been cast — including record turnout for young voters.
I don’t qualify as a young voter anymore (aged out of it with last election!) but I’ll admit that I have yet to cast my vote — my early polling place is the busiest in NYC, with over 120,000 people districted for the one site. Lines are stretching past six hours. I plan instead to vote on Election Day, at the polling site near my apartment, because that’ll be far less crowded. Plus, I’m taking the day off from other work, so I’ll have time.
That said, I’ll be helping a City Council candidate in my neighborhood pass out coffee to voters waiting through the cold this weekend, so I’ll get the long line experience, anyway!
Texas: Speaking of egregious gerrymanders, corrupt Republicans, and court cases that should have died in the docket, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just paused a lower court order that would have required Texans to wear masks to polling places.
So, for the record: According to Republican judges, voters can bring guns to polling places (in Michigan, a hotbed of fringe right-wing radicals who literally tried to kidnap the governor) but don’t have to wear masks in Texas (a state with climbing COVID-19 numbers that disproportionately impact Black and Latino voters). Got it.
Virginia: OK, how about we go back to good news? Virginia’s Democratic triumvirate is on a remarkable run of passing criminal justice and policing reform laws, which it continued on Wednesday.
The big headline is that Gov. Ralph Northam’s signature made Virginia the third state to ban no-knock search warrants (in most situations, anyway). He also signed a host of other reform bills, including ones that would begin demilitarizing the police, require officers to intervene if they see colleagues using excessive force, limit chokeholds, and force police to go through various trainings to make them less racist and less likely to shoot people experiencing mental health crises. The whole list is here.
Florida: Two interesting notes about the state’s Cuban diaspora:
First, Mother Jones has a story about how Democrats lost the Cuban vote and let it become so solidly Republican (socialism and the fear thereof have a lot to do with it).
And second, ICE is terrorizing Cuban asylum-seekers. I would think that might complicate things for the GOP.
Wait, before you go!
Progressives Everywhere is a one-person operation funded by readers like you (and whatever spare change I have in my pocket after paying rent). Together, we’ve raised over $5 million for truly progressive candidates and causes since 2018, helping to flip seats, restore voting rights, expand healthcare, and much more.
Right now, I don’t have a full-time job. I do this because I love it, but I have to balance it against all the freelance work I do each month. I’d love to do this as a full-time job (or at least make it one of my full-time gigs), but I’ve got a long way to go.
To help me out (more than you already have! thank you!), you can make a donation to Progressives Everywhere’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in an upcoming edition of the big newsletter!