This is why you pack the court

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, allowed a congressional map drawn by Alabama Republicans to remain in place Monday, freezing a lower court ruling that said the map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters.

The lower court had ordered a new map to be drawn, which could have led to Democrats gaining another seat in the House in the fall.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent.

  CNN

It makes him look serious, when he knows his vote won't make a difference.  He set the scene.

The justices also said they would hear arguments over the map, adding another potentially explosive issue -- concerning the scope of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act -- to the court's docket.

The court's order, the first dealing with the 2022 elections, means that the map will be used for the state's upcoming primary, and likely be in place for the entire election cycle, while the legal challenge plays out.

And it will be a lot easier to pretend to adhere to the Constitution after the map helps Republicans flip the House and Senate in November.

The order pauses an opinion by a panel of three judges that held that the Alabama map likely violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it only includes one district where Black voters have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for himself and fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito, said the court acted in order to maintain the status quo while the justices consider the issue.

Typical Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh said the court's order "does not make or signal any change" to voting rights law.

Bullcrap.  It signals the hell out of a continuing constriction of voting rights for people of color and poor people.

Roberts, who again found himself siding with the court's three liberals, said that while he agreed the court should take up the issue for next term to "resolve the wide ranging uncertainties" in the case, he would have allowed the district court opinion to stand while the appeals process played out.

[...]

"The District Court properly applied existing law in an extensive opinion with no apparent errors for our correction," Roberts wrote.

[...]

[Justice Elena] Kagan [wrote in a more strongly worded dissent that] the majority had gone "badly wrong" in granting Alabama's request to freeze the lower court opinion and the court's decision "forces Black Alabamians to suffer what under the law is clear vote dilution." She said the decision will undermine a key section of the Voting Rights Act.

She also said the court shouldn't issue such an impactful order on its emergency docket (which critics refer to as its "shadow docket") without full briefing and oral argument.

"Today's decision is one more in a disconcertingly long line of cases in which this Court uses its shadow docket to signal or make changes in the law, without anything approaching full briefing and argument," she said.

[...]

The Supreme Court will hear the full case next fall.

Indeed, there was no need to throw the shadow docket decision in. Other than to assure Republicans win in Alabama in November.

And, speaking of Kavanaugh, check out this Strict Scrutiny podcast - Supreme Ambition - discussing the truly shitty background and lack of fitness of that asshole for the highest court in the land.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

This is the map that's being used.  It's drawn to include Montgomery and Birmingham in one district.  Both cities are majority black.

And while we're looking at this map, take a look at these poverty rate statistics for Birmingham and Montgomery:

And Republicans rule.