Dem
47
GOP
53
Well, we erred yesterday, in writing that current jurisprudence works against Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). In fact, while she lost in state court in New York, the Voting-Rights-Act-hating U.S. Supreme Court rode to her rescue. Through use of the infamous shadow docket, the New York courts' decision is on hold until the appeals process can play out all the way. We did not see the news, because it was kind of drowned out by, you know, Donald Trump potentially starting World War III.
As is often the case with these unsigned decisions, we don't know exactly how the votes shook down. However, there was a concurrence from Samuel Alito, who drew on his vast experience with racial discrimination as a highly privileged white man, and shared his view that the whole cause of action is racist. There was also a dissent from the three liberal justices. That means there were at least four other conservative justices who voted with Alito—Chief Justice John Roberts is a safe guess, as are Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. At least one, and probably both, of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, also sided with the majority. Incidentally, two different New York courts had refused to stay the decision, so it would appear that five or six of the conservative justices know better than, you know, actual New York jurists.
The filing deadline in New York is April 6, and it's just not plausible that this gets resolved before then. So, Malliotakis gets one more nice, easy election in the R+10 NY-11. Thereafter, she's at risk of either losing her court case on appeal, or seeing her district redrawn by the legislature in the next round of mid-decade redistricting. But that's a problem for tomorrow, and not today. (Z)