The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 17, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We recently explained the Supreme Court’s Purcell principle and its impact. May 15th, the  U.S. Supreme Court overturned a shocking Fifth Circuit decision to throw out fairer Congressional districts for Louisiana. The Purcell principle apparently played a role.

The 2006 Purcell principle instructed courts not to hand down decisions which would disrupt election administration too close to the election, confusing voters.   

Louisiana’s 2021 racially-gerrymandered Congressional districts were finally changed in 2024 to include two majority-Black districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act.  April 30th, the Fifth Circuit threw those districts out – six months before the election.  Democracy groups appealed, and May 15th, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Fifth Circuit ruling, pending a full appeal.  It’s likely the case won’t be heard until next year, so fairer maps remain in place for the 2024 election.  That’s good news, sort of.

Although the order itself doesn’t mention Purcell, dissents from Justices Jackson and Kagan do.  Jackson writes, “In my view, Purcell has no role to play here. There is little risk of voter confusion from a new map being imposed this far out from the November election. In fact, we have often denied stays of redistricting orders issued as close or closer to an election.” 

Justices need to figure out how close is too close, and soon.  No less than the freedom to vote hangs in the balance.  Find out more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
American Democracy Minute –  Louisiana Legislature Hashes Out New Court-Ordered Congressional Maps with Two Majority Black Districts
American Democracy Minute – The Federal 5th Circuit Backtracks on Louisiana Congressional Maps, Throwing Out New Map Which Gave Black Voters & Candidates a Chance
U.S. Supreme Court via Democracy Docket – PRESS ROBINSON, ET AL. v. PHILLIP CALLAIS, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
SCOTUS Blog – Court allows Louisiana to move forward with two majority-Black districts
Louisiana Illuminator – Supreme Court orders Louisiana to use congressional map with two majority-Black districts
American Democracy Minute – The Purcell Principle:  A SCOTUS Decision Intended to Avoid Voter Confusion May Now Be a Stealth Voter Suppression Tactic

Groups Taking Action:
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ACLU Louisiana,  Power Coalition for Equity and Justice

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #FairMaps #PurcellPrinciple #LouisianaNews #VotingRightsAct #SCOTUS #USSupremeCourt

The post U.S. Supreme Court Stays 5th Circuit, Allowing Louisiana’s Fairer Congressional Maps – Apparently Invoking the Purcell Principle appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 16, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

You may have heard references to the “Purcell principle” in news reports.  What started as a U.S. Supreme Court opinion to minimize confusion and disruption close to an election, may now be a partisan voter suppression tactic. 

Five weeks before the 2006 midterms, a federal court stayed an Arizona voter ID proof of citizenship law intended to suppress Native American voters.  

The Supreme Court took the case on an emergency basis – the so-called “shadow docket” – and overturned Purcell v Gonzalez, citing confusion for voters and election workers if changes were implemented too close to the election. 

Courts since have cited Purcell to delay voting rights and redistricting cases, sometimes at the expense of the right to vote or fair districts, as with the racially-gerrymander maps in Alabama’s Milligan case.  A lower court struck down the maps in January 2022.  But the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the order, allowing their use for the midterms, only to throw them out in June 2023 as a violation of the Voting Rights Act. It undoubtedly cost Black Alabamians fair representation.  A similar scenario may be unfolding in Louisiana, where fair Congressional maps were struck down with the 2024 election just six months away.

Could a partisan court influence an election just by manipulating a voting rights case on its calendar, then citing Purcell?  We’ll be watching. 

Find more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Fordham Law Voting Rights & Democracy Project – The Purcell Principle: An Evolving Doctrine
Election Law at The Ohio State University via SCOTUS Blog – THE PURCELL PRINCIPLE: A PRESUMPTION AGAINST LAST-MINUTE CHANGES TO ELECTION PROCEDURES

NPR – Illegal voting maps were used in some states in 2022. This legal idea allowed them
Politico – The murky legal concept that could swing the election
Democracy Docket – Alabama Congressional Redistricting Challenge (SCOTUS)
Brittany Carter, American University Law – The Purcell Principle and the Antiblackness of Constitutional Fundamentalism

Groups Taking Action:

NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Campaign Legal Center, ACLU AL

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #SCOTUS #VoterSupression #Purcell Principle #EndGerrymandering

The post The Purcell Principle:  A SCOTUS Decision Intended to Avoid Voter Confusion May Now Be a Stealth Voter Suppression Tactic appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 13, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

A New York state appeals court upheld a new state law allowing any state resident to vote by mail during the early voting period.  New York and national Republican committees, along with a NY Congresswoman, had sued to prevent unfettered access to mail-in ballots.

The New York Early Mail Voter Act was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul last September, and immediately challenged by no less than Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the Republican National Committee, the New York Republican State committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the Conservative Party of New York.   They and the other plaintiffs argued that the law is an unconstitutional end-run around the New York state constitution, which stipulates absentee voting is allowed only when the citizen is absent from the county, or due to an illness or a disability.

The Albany Times-Union reports that the State Supreme appellate court unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling on May 9th, finding the law constitutional, and affirming the legislature’s power to enact it.  In the court’s opinion, QUOTE  “ . . . the NY Constitution contains no requirement – express or implied – mandating that voting occur in-person on election day.”  

Barring further appeal, the New York Early Mail Voter Act will be in place for the November 2024 general election. 

We have a link to the opinion, the text of the bill, and an Albany Law School analysis at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Gotham Gazette – (2023) Expansive Vote by Mail Bill Moved Through State Legislature as Session Ended
New York State Assembly – New York Early Mail Voter Act
Richad Rifkin, Albany Law School Government Law Center  –  (2023) The Constitutionality of the New York Early Mail Voter Act
Democracy Docket – New York Early Mail Voter Act Challenge
Times-Union – Stefanik case to overturn vote by mail rejected by appeals court

Groups Taking Action:
Common Cause NY,  Let NY Vote, Citizen Action NY, League of Women Voters NY

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #VotebyMail #VoteatHome #NYNews #NYPolitics

The post New York Appeals Court Protects the State Mail-in Voting Law, Dealing a Blow to NY Congresswoman & GOP Groups appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 9, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

In 2021, Native Americans nations negotiated with the State of North Dakota to create majority minority state House districts under the Voting Rights Act, and together defended it in federal court. NOW the State is welching on the deal and joining the GOP plaintiffs in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision.

Two local GOP officials contested House District 4A in 2022, claiming it was unfair under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Native American nations, also known as the MHA Nation, joined with the State of North Dakota, arguing the VRA Section 2 gives them the right to elect a candidate of their choice.  Together, they won, when a three judge federal panel agreed.  The GOP officials appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But in a shameful historical pattern, the State of North Dakota abandoned its agreement with the MHA nation, and May 6th, instead asked the justices to vacate the decision, potentially eliminating District 4a, and three other majority minority Native districts.

As we’ve reported, voter suppression forces have been throwing cases at the high court’s wall in hopes that conservative justices will rescind remaining voting protections for minority Americans.  Expect oral arguments this fall.

We have details of the case and groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Charles Walen and Paul Henderson (Via Democracy Docket) – (2022) COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

Democracy Docket – (2023) Federal Court Rejects GOP Lawsuit Aimed At Eliminating North Dakota Tribal Nation Legislative Districts

Charles Walen and Paul Henderson (Via Democracy Docket) – NOTICE OF APPEAL TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT
North Dakota Monitor – North Dakota changes course on tribal redistricting case, asks US Supreme Court to rule
Native American Rights Fund – DEFENDING A MAJORITY NATIVE-VOTER SUBDISTRICT IN NORTH DAKOTA (WALEN V. BURGUM)
U.S. Supreme Court – Docket for Charles Walen, et al., Appellants v. Doug Burgum, Governor of North Dakota, et al.

Groups Taking Action:
Native American Rights Fund, Campaign Legal Center, Election Law Group 

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #NativeVote #VotingRightsAct #FreedomtoVote

The post Betrayed by State Officials, North Dakota Native Americans Forced to Again Fight for the Right to Choose Their Own State Representation appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 8, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Today, we’re looking at a principle called the “Gingles Test” that federal courts use  when determining whether a gerrymandered redistricting map is a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.   How that test is interpreted can determine whether minority voters can elect the candidate of their choice, or their vote is diluted by an anti-voter state legislature.

A group of Black voters sued the North Carolina legislature in 1982, arguing their voting districts violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by diluting their vote and keeping Black North Carolinians from electing the candidate of their choice.   

Before it came to trial, Congress clarified the VRA to say intentional discrimination didn’t need to be proved, just the EFFECT of discrimination was enough to be a violation of Section 2.

Thornburg v. Gingles created a three part test for federal courts to use when considering whether a VRA violation had occurred.  It stipulates:

• The minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district;
• The minority group is politically cohesive, usually voting the same way; and 
• The white majority votes sufficiently as a bloc, usually defeating the minority’s preferred candidate.

As shown in the recent overturning of Louisiana’s new Congressional map with a second majority minority district, the interpretation of “geographically compact” and “politically cohesive” still leaves wiggle room for discrimination.  

We have more on Gingles and the VRA at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
BallotPedia – Thornburg v. Gingles
Charis Franklin, Fordham University Law – From Poll Tests To The Purcell Doctrine:  Merrill V. Milligan And The Precarious Preservation Of Voting Rights
The American Redistricting Project – Thornburg v. Gingles (1986)
Brennan Center for Justice – Breaking Down the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act Decision Out of Alabama
Louisiana Illuminator – Federal court tosses Landry-backed Louisiana congressional map

Groups Taking Action:
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Campaign Legal Center, ACLU, Native American Rights Fund

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #RacialGerrymandering #VotingRightsAct #VRA

The post What is the ‘Gingles Test’ and How Does it Impact Minority Voting Rights? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.