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Sorry we didn’t remind those among us who are Supreme Court watchers last week that it is June and time for the SCOTUS to wrap up its term with their usual end of term pronouncements that may totally change the direction of the country on a dime. 

What days decisions will be handed down is announced by the Court as the month goes on. Usually at the end of an announcement day it announces the next announcement day. So far they have announced decisions on the first two Thursdays of the month. The next day for decisions will be next Thursday, June 15th.

One of the best places for a quick synopsis of the decisions and discussion on the impacts scotusblog.com. There are some extremely sharp folks discussing the decisions there. I often check in daily during June to see if any news or rumors are filtering out.

So far the SCOTUS has only ruled on a few cases. There are something like 27 left including the potential block buster of Moore v. Harper arising from North Carolina. Moore v. Harper is the case that is pushing the so-called “independent legislature theory.” That is whether a state legislature can overturn the popular vote for president and give the electoral votes to the losing candidate in their state. 

Last Thursday were as a truly surprising decision. In a case involving gerrymandering in Alabama that appeared to be in direct violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Court watchers fully expected that the heavily right wing Court would use this opportunity to pretty much nullify the Voting Rights Act.

But we were all surprised when the SCOTUS decided that the gerrymandering in Alabama DID violate the Voting Rights Act. The decision was  5 to 4 with Roberts and Kavanaugh joining liberals  Jackson, Sotomayor and Kagan voting in the majority. 

Here is an excerpt from NBC News:  

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Republican-drawn congressional districts in Alabama that civil rights activists say discriminated against Black voters in a surprise reaffirmation of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

The court in a 5-4 vote ruled against Alabama, meaning the map of the seven congressional districts, which heavily favors Republicans, will now be redrawn. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, both conservatives, joined the court’s three liberals in the majority.

In doing so, the court — which has a 6-3 conservative majority — turned away the state’s effort to make it harder to remedy concerns raised by civil rights advocates that the power of Black voters in states like Alabama is being diluted by dividing voters into districts where white voters dominate.

In 2013, Roberts authored a ruling that gutted a separate, important provision of the Voting Rights Act and has long argued that various government efforts to address historic racial discrimination are problematic and may exacerbate the situation.   

As I said – a real surprise. Stay tuned, there may be more!