The Supreme Court's ongoing assault on American elections

As Americans prepare for one of the most important elections in our history, bear in mind that the source of structural imbalances comes directly from the conservatives on the Court.

Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash

As I have discussed repeatedly, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has been making some decisions with grave implications for every American.

On Friday, the justices issued five decisions, the most important being the denial of a Second Amendment challenge to a federal law that bars anyone with a domestic violence restraining order from having a gun. This is the second ruling the Supreme Court issued this month that temporarily gives women a break from the attack on their rights (the other was upholding access to mifepristone for pregnancy terminations.)

But these are not the kinds of decisions we have grown accustomed to with this Court, nor should we.

Since 2010, the Court issued its ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, striking down an act of Congress to forever alter the funding of American elections. Then, for example, just three years later, the Court stripped away voter protections in place under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 required states with histories of trying to keep Black voters from the polls to get DOJ authorization before making any changes to their voting laws.

The Court also made it impossible to challenge political—or party-based—gerrymandering (in which legislatures pick their voters versus the other way around), and a ruling last month in Alexander v. South Carolina made racial gerrymandering easier. In Alexander, the Supreme Court upheld a South Carolina congressional district map that used race as a proxy to solidify the staggering Republican majority in the state’s congressional delegations.

I explained all of this in an article for The Hill, which went viral last week. People apparently took note.

Congress is broken. We’ve heard that many times before, and it’s true. But it’s important to bear in mind that before things got as bad as they are today, Congress did pass some critical pieces of legislation aimed at ensuring fair elections. The Supreme Court has repeatedly stepped in to strip away these laws, injuring voters and rewarding corporations and special interests.

What was Citizens United v. FEC about?

Citizens United is a conservative nonprofit group “dedicated to restoring our government to citizens’ control.” They receive funds primarily from private donors and some limited donations from for-profit corporations. In 2008, they produced a documentary that was basically an attempt to encourage voters to vote against Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary election.

The FEC told Citizens United that they were not allowed to advertise for this documentary or air it at all because it violated a portion of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The relevant section of the Act made it a felony for any corporation to advocate or attack candidates and to produce any electioneering media within 30 days of the primary or 60 of the general election. Citizens United challenged the FEC’s decision, prompting the Supreme Court to change the face of American politics.

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