BY MARK JOSEPH STERN
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On Monday afternoon, the Supreme Court crushed yet another key component of the Voting Rights Act, halting a lower court order that required Alabama to redraw its egregious racial gerrymander. The court’s intervention in Merrill v. Milligan was so radically unjustified that Chief Justice John Roberts–an architect of the judicial attack on voting rights–dissented, alongside the three liberals. The court’s order indicates that the five ultraconservative justices are preparing to dismantle the VRA’s guarantee against gerrymanders that dilute the voting strength of Black Americans. Indeed, by interceding so aggressively in Merrill, these far-right justices have effectively nullified this guarantee for the current redistricting cycle.
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