Roberts desperate to shake off some of the scrutiny

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices Thursday in a surprise strike down of Alabama’s congressional map for likely violating the Voting Rights Act.

In a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held up a lower court’s ruling that ordered Alabama to create a new congressional map with an additional majority-Black district. Despite Black residents making up about 27 percent of the state population, Alabama’s congressional map included only one majority-Black district out of the state’s seven total districts.

[...]

Roberts authored the majority opinion, writing that the majority is “content to reject Alabama’s invitation to change existing law.”

“As we explain below, we find Alabama’s new approach to §2 compelling neither in theory nor in practice. We accordingly decline to recast our §2 case law as Alabama requested,” Roberts wrote.

The ruling comes as a surprise after conservative members of the Court signaled last year that they were open to narrowing Voting Rights Act protections. The Court had placed the lower court’s ruling on hold in a 5-4 emergency decision so that the justices could take more time to address the case.

  The Hill

Coming from the justice most determined in his tenure to destroy voting rights, this seems like an obvious attempt to get something on the record to counter the intense scrutiny coming his way as the court loses the confidence of the American public.

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

UPDATE 02:12 pm:

UPDATE 10:35 pm:  Analysts are saying this decision changes the picture for 2024 to favor Democrats.