Thumbing Their Noses.

[Editorial]

That is what the state of Alabama is doing , they lost a Supreme Court case about redistricting of their congressional districts.

Supreme Court rules in favor of Black Alabama voters in unexpected defense of Voting Rights Act

AP News

By Mark Sheman

June 8, 2023

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case from Alabama, with two conservative justices joining liberals in rejecting a Republican-led effort to weaken a landmark voting rights law.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh aligned with the court’s liberals in affirming a lower-court ruling that found a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act in an Alabama congressional map with one majority Black seat out of seven districts in a state where more than one in four residents is Black. The state now will have to draw a new map for next year’s elections.

The decision was keenly anticipated for its potential effect on control of the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives. Because of the ruling, new maps are likely in Alabama and Louisiana that could allow Democratic-leaning Black voters to elect their preferred candidates in two more congressional districts.

The outcome was unexpected in that the court had allowed the challenged Alabama map to be used for the 2022 elections, and in arguments last October the justices appeared willing to make it harder to challenge redistricting plans as racially discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

So what did the Alabama legislature do?

Well they thumbed their noses at the Supreme Court ruling and did their own thing.

Alabama lawmakers refuse to create a 2nd majority-Black congressional district

NPR 

By The Associated Press

July 21, 2023

Alabama on Friday refused to create a second majority-Black congressional district, a move that could defy a recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court to give minority voters a greater voice and trigger a renewed battle over the state's political map.

Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated House and Senate instead passed a plan that would increase the percentage of Black voters from about 31% to 40% in the state's 2nd District. The map was a compromise between plans that had percentages of 42% and 38% for the southeast Alabama district. GOP Gov. Kay Ivey quickly signed it.

State lawmakers faced a deadline to adopt new district lines after the Supreme Court in June upheld a three-judge panel's finding that the current state map — with one majority-Black district out of seven in a state that is 27% Black — likely violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

[…]

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said the map, "and the Republican politicians who supported it, would make George Wallace proud," referring to the segregationist former Alabama governor.

"It arrogantly defies a very conservative United States Supreme Court decision ... from just weeks ago," Holder said in a statement.

The court cannot enforce their ruling that is up to the Department of Justice, what is their recourse?

The Hill wrote,

As for flaunting her state’s defiance of the law, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey added insult to injury when she tweeted, “The Legislature knows our state, our people, and our districts better than the federal courts …”

Such contempt for courts is in service of national GOP power. Alabama journalist Brian Lyman reported that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had told state Rep. Brian Livingston, the map’s sponsor, “I’m interested in keeping my majority.” Meaning that the House GOP’s narrow, five-seat majority is at risk in 2024, and McCarthy can’t afford to lose a seat in Alabama to a second all-Black district.

So how can Alabama be forced into compliance with the Supreme Court ruling?

There are several way that they can try, legal action again which I doubt very much that it will work, they just keep thumbing their noses at the courts.

Cut federal funding, but then that hurts the people not the state government.

My idea if the Democrats regain control of the House is to refuse to seat Alabama legislators. Just don’t allow them to take office since they were elected legally.

[/Editorial]

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5:30AM

Over and over again the Republicans have been ignoring the voters wishes, last us hope that they continue doing that. Every time the question was brought to the people the voters struck down anti-abortion legislation. They have tried everything to go around the will of the people.

Commentary: Ohio's GOP just learned voters are not as gullible as they think

NPR 91.7 WVXU

By Howard Wilkinson

August 8, 2023

Nice try, Ohio GOP.

Issue 1, the incredibly bad deal you were offering Ohioans, failed miserably.

A solid majority could not figure out why, for heaven's sake, they would agree to allow 41% of voters to shoot down an idea for a state constitutional amendment.

The 60% threshold was a miserable flop; and so too was another piece of Issue 1, which would have made it nearly impossible for any citizen-driven initiative to get on the ballot.

And the only thing you accomplished was to make Ohio taxpayers foot the bill for an August special election and waste the tens of millions of dollars both sides spent on this pointless campaign.

Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, who wanted this more than anything to try to squelch the reproductive rights amendment on the November ballot, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the cheerleader-in-chief for Issue 1, are the ones chiefly responsible for this GOP disaster.

The Republican philosophy: "We know better than the voters what the voters want."

The battle over Issue 1 had the issue of abortion rights at its core from the beginning, regardless of how much Republican proponents tried to spin it initially as the way to save Ohio from a largely non-existent scourge of well-funded special interest groups trying to con Ohio voters.

[...]

But the anti-abortion rights groups that supported Issue 1 — most importantly, Ohio Right to Life — were having none of that argument, and went directly to their principal message: that this was about making it much harder or even impossible for an abortion rights amendment on the November ballot to pass.

The Republicans keep playing to their base, the evangelical Christians and the white supremacists. But the thing is those views are not shared by the vast majority of the people as the vote yesterday showed.

With 82% of vote counted, Issue 1 went down with 57% voting "no."

Let us hope that the Republicans don't learn their lesson and their bullheadedness leads them to shoot themselves in the foot.

11:00AM

The right-wing Washington Examiner wrote:

2022 Kansas referendum

The first test for abortion came less than two months after Dobbs, when officials in Kansas hoped to make clear that abortion was not a state constitutional right. The result in the safely Republican state was a shock to many anti-abortion advocates, as the referendum went down in a crushing 59%-40% defeat.

[...]

2022 Kentucky Amendment 2

Months after the Kansas election, anti-abortion advocates saw another defeat with Kentucky Amendment 2 in November 2022.

[...]

The state Republican Party backed the initiative, while the state Democratic Party opposed the ballot measure. The measure narrowly failed in a Nov. 8, 2022, vote, 52%-47%.

[...]

2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election

While not directly on the ballot, abortion played a key role in the defeat of the conservative candidate in the April 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

The state's high court flipped from a conservative majority to a liberal majority when Janet Protasiewicz defeated Daniel Kelly in the April 4 election. Protasiewicz made abortion a key issue in the race, as the Supreme Court of the state would likely have to rule on the legality of abortion law. Her bet on abortion rights paid off when she won 55%-44% in the election, a crushing defeat for the GOP and anti-abortion advocates.

2023 Ohio Issue 1

The latest defeat for anti-abortion advocates came with the failure of Issue 1 in Ohio, in which officials were seeking to make changes to the constitution more difficult than a simple majority.

Lets hope that the Republicans keep pushing their right-wing agenda. We know that the Republicans are against but what are they for, they are against abortion, against us, against immigrants but what are they for? What are they doing about the economy? What are they doing about the crumbling infrastructure? What are they doing for the healthcare crisis? What are they doing about gun control?

 they are against