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May 26, 2026
MS NOW Opinion-A post after Charlie Kirk's death never should have landed our client in jail
Larry Bushart sued the government after spending 37 days jailed for posting a meme following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. He has now won an $835,000 settlement.
https://x.com/cooleyrj/status/205873321591376738
https://www.ms.now/opinion/charlie-kirk-meme-first-amendment-free-speech
Case in point: On the night of Sept. 21, 2025, police officers in Lexington, Tennessee, executed a warrant obtained at the direction of Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems, handcuffed Larry Bushart and drove him to jail in Lexington. He was later transferred to a jail in Perry County, where he remained for 37 days on a $2 million bond. His alleged “crime”? Posting a political meme.
Bushart participated in a Facebook discussion following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. He posted a meme quoting Donald Trump’s comment from the day after a 2024 shooting at Perry High School in Iowa: “We have to get over it.”
The sheriff and his investigator knew at the time of Bushart’s arrest that the meme referenced a 2024 shooting in Iowa. But that didn’t stop them from arguing that Bushart was threatening, a year later, to shoot up Perry County High School in Perry County, Tennessee. Nor did it matter that the meme simply isn’t a threat on its face and can’t reasonably be read as one.
After the sheriff admitted that he knew all along that Bushart wasn’t threatening the local school, the district attorney’s office dropped the criminal charge and released Bushart from jail on Oct. 29, 2025.
With the help of our organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Bushart sued to vindicate his First Amendment rights. This week, FIRE announced a settlement under which Bushart will receive $835,000 in exchange for dismissing his complaint.
The First Amendment presumptively protects all speech, carving out a few limited, narrow categories of unprotected speech. True threats — serious expressions of an intent to commit unlawful violence — are unprotected. But the Supreme Court has long held that political hyperbole is not an unprotected true threat. ....
Free speech — and heated political rhetoric in particular — is essential to a free society. For one, majority rule in a democracy is only legitimate if minority voices have been able to make their case. For another, free flowing political speech acts as a check against consolidated political power. And free speech acts as a safety valve for dissent, offering a crucial alternative to violence.
Alarmingly, a December 2025 FIRE survey found that 9 out of 10 undergraduates believe that “words can be violence” — and this was after the Charlie Kirk assassination, an “extreme and tragic example of the sharp difference between words and violence.” When officials bring meritless prosecutions against the Larry Busharts and James Comeys of the world, they risk blurring that line even further.
Bushart’s meme and Comey’s seashells are not threats of violence — not even close. By pretending otherwise, government officials in both cases betrayed fundamental First Amendment law and free speech values. From a historical perspective, this is not surprising, but it is disappointing. Law enforcement must do better, and Americans must hold them accountable when they fail to respect the Constitution.
Bushart participated in a Facebook discussion following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. He posted a meme quoting Donald Trump’s comment from the day after a 2024 shooting at Perry High School in Iowa: “We have to get over it.”
The sheriff and his investigator knew at the time of Bushart’s arrest that the meme referenced a 2024 shooting in Iowa. But that didn’t stop them from arguing that Bushart was threatening, a year later, to shoot up Perry County High School in Perry County, Tennessee. Nor did it matter that the meme simply isn’t a threat on its face and can’t reasonably be read as one.
After the sheriff admitted that he knew all along that Bushart wasn’t threatening the local school, the district attorney’s office dropped the criminal charge and released Bushart from jail on Oct. 29, 2025.
With the help of our organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Bushart sued to vindicate his First Amendment rights. This week, FIRE announced a settlement under which Bushart will receive $835,000 in exchange for dismissing his complaint.
The First Amendment presumptively protects all speech, carving out a few limited, narrow categories of unprotected speech. True threats — serious expressions of an intent to commit unlawful violence — are unprotected. But the Supreme Court has long held that political hyperbole is not an unprotected true threat. ....
Free speech — and heated political rhetoric in particular — is essential to a free society. For one, majority rule in a democracy is only legitimate if minority voices have been able to make their case. For another, free flowing political speech acts as a check against consolidated political power. And free speech acts as a safety valve for dissent, offering a crucial alternative to violence.
Alarmingly, a December 2025 FIRE survey found that 9 out of 10 undergraduates believe that “words can be violence” — and this was after the Charlie Kirk assassination, an “extreme and tragic example of the sharp difference between words and violence.” When officials bring meritless prosecutions against the Larry Busharts and James Comeys of the world, they risk blurring that line even further.
Bushart’s meme and Comey’s seashells are not threats of violence — not even close. By pretending otherwise, government officials in both cases betrayed fundamental First Amendment law and free speech values. From a historical perspective, this is not surprising, but it is disappointing. Law enforcement must do better, and Americans must hold them accountable when they fail to respect the Constitution.
May 26, 2026
Federal court blocks redistricting map created to help GOP in Alabama
The decision is a win for Democrats. The map had been designed to give Republicans an edge in six of seven congressional districts in the state for November’s elections.
https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/2059281709670027518
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/26/court-blocks-map-meant-help-republicans-alabama
A federal court Tuesday blocked Alabama from using a map designed to give Republicans an edge in six of seven congressional districts in the state, delivering Democrats a win — at least for now — amid a national battle over how political lines are drawn.
The unanimous three-judge panel ruled the state could not use its map because the court had years ago determined it “represents an intentional effort to crack the Black population in Alabama.”
The judges told the state for now to use the map that was in effect for the last election. Under that map, the state sent five White Republicans and two Black Democrats to Congress.
But the judges also left the Republican-run legislature the opportunity to draw the state’s congressional map yet again. That gives Republicans a chance to engineer a new map favoring them. They could also appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The unanimous three-judge panel ruled the state could not use its map because the court had years ago determined it “represents an intentional effort to crack the Black population in Alabama.”
The judges told the state for now to use the map that was in effect for the last election. Under that map, the state sent five White Republicans and two Black Democrats to Congress.
But the judges also left the Republican-run legislature the opportunity to draw the state’s congressional map yet again. That gives Republicans a chance to engineer a new map favoring them. They could also appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
May 26, 2026
Federal court blocks redistricting map created to help GOP in Alabama
The decision is a win for Democrats. The map had been designed to give Republicans an edge in six of seven congressional districts in the state for November’s elections.
https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/2059281709670027518
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/26/court-blocks-map-meant-help-republicans-alabama
A federal court Tuesday blocked Alabama from using a map designed to give Republicans an edge in six of seven congressional districts in the state, delivering Democrats a win — at least for now — amid a national battle over how political lines are drawn.
The unanimous three-judge panel ruled the state could not use its map because the court had years ago determined it “represents an intentional effort to crack the Black population in Alabama.”
The judges told the state for now to use the map that was in effect for the last election. Under that map, the state sent five White Republicans and two Black Democrats to Congress.
But the judges also left the Republican-run legislature the opportunity to draw the state’s congressional map yet again. That gives Republicans a chance to engineer a new map favoring them. They could also appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The unanimous three-judge panel ruled the state could not use its map because the court had years ago determined it “represents an intentional effort to crack the Black population in Alabama.”
The judges told the state for now to use the map that was in effect for the last election. Under that map, the state sent five White Republicans and two Black Democrats to Congress.
But the judges also left the Republican-run legislature the opportunity to draw the state’s congressional map yet again. That gives Republicans a chance to engineer a new map favoring them. They could also appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
May 26, 2026
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-rushed-to-hospital-to-have
The Borowitz Report-Trump Rushed to Hospital to Have Lindsey Graham Surgically Removed
Trump Rushed to Hospital to Have Lindsey Graham Surgically Removed
— eugene (@eugene290390.bsky.social) 2026-05-26T11:41:52.519Z
open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-rushed-to-hospital-to-have
BETHESDA (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday to have Senator Lindsey Graham surgically removed.
What was originally billed as a routine physical exam quickly became a medical emergency after doctors determined that the South Carolina lawmaker, who had been attached to Trump since 2016, had to be amputated.
A team of surgeons performed the seven-hour operation to remove the invasive parasite in a procedure known as a toadyectomy.
Doctors said that Trump was “recovering well” but would soon have to return to the hospital to have House Speaker Mike Johnson removed.
What was originally billed as a routine physical exam quickly became a medical emergency after doctors determined that the South Carolina lawmaker, who had been attached to Trump since 2016, had to be amputated.
A team of surgeons performed the seven-hour operation to remove the invasive parasite in a procedure known as a toadyectomy.
Doctors said that Trump was “recovering well” but would soon have to return to the hospital to have House Speaker Mike Johnson removed.
May 25, 2026
https://www.alternet.org/trump-ballroom-secret-service
New court filing 'obviously written by Trump' tries to leverage shooting for ballroom
I cannot believe that any real or ethical attorney would sign these pleadings. The lawyers who signed this pleading will be disbarred
New court filing 'obviously written by Trump' tries to leverage shooting for ballroom #AlterNet
— #TuckFrump (@realtuckfrumper.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T14:16:23.000Z
https://www.alternet.org/trump-ballroom-secret-service
Early Saturday evening, May 23 during Memorial Day Weekend, U.S. Secret Service agents exchanged fire with a gunman who was approaching a White House security checkpoint in Washington, DC. The gunman was killed, and President Donald Trump is responding to the incident by arguing that it makes a case for his White House ballroom. And Trump's legal team makes that argument in a court filing posted online the day after the incident.
Politico legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein posted the six-page legal document on X, formerly Twitter, noting how decidedly Trumpian the language in the filing is.
Gerstein tweeted, "JUST IN: Another court filing obviously written by Trump, seeks to leverage shooting Saturday to end litigation over WH ballroom project. Calls latest episode 'assassination attempt.' Cites news reports, but no other proof/legal cases. Ends w/a '!"....
Many of Trump's critics are attacking the proposed ballroom as a vanity project that will cost taxpayers a fortune. But the court filing claims that the ballroom is necessary from a national security standpoint.
"This second attack on the President this month underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the Ballroom, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility," the filing states. "This court's unlawful injunction has wrongfully cast a cloud of uncertainty around the future of the entire East Wing Project, which is being constructed for the physical safety and security of all Presidents, their families, staff, Foreign Dignitaries, and guests. When completed, this highly knitted, integrated, and unified Project, which is a singular and vital National Security facility, will provide a 'SAFE HAVEN' from attackers such as the one last night, and on April 25th. It will provide a highly secure space for future Inaugurations, and other major events, such as the recent visit of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, and the coming visit in September of President Xi of China."
Politico legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein posted the six-page legal document on X, formerly Twitter, noting how decidedly Trumpian the language in the filing is.
Gerstein tweeted, "JUST IN: Another court filing obviously written by Trump, seeks to leverage shooting Saturday to end litigation over WH ballroom project. Calls latest episode 'assassination attempt.' Cites news reports, but no other proof/legal cases. Ends w/a '!"....
Many of Trump's critics are attacking the proposed ballroom as a vanity project that will cost taxpayers a fortune. But the court filing claims that the ballroom is necessary from a national security standpoint.
"This second attack on the President this month underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the Ballroom, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility," the filing states. "This court's unlawful injunction has wrongfully cast a cloud of uncertainty around the future of the entire East Wing Project, which is being constructed for the physical safety and security of all Presidents, their families, staff, Foreign Dignitaries, and guests. When completed, this highly knitted, integrated, and unified Project, which is a singular and vital National Security facility, will provide a 'SAFE HAVEN' from attackers such as the one last night, and on April 25th. It will provide a highly secure space for future Inaugurations, and other major events, such as the recent visit of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, and the coming visit in September of President Xi of China."
May 25, 2026
The president trumpets claims that he is in excellent health, but independent physicians say the White House hasn't answered key questions ahead of his third visit in 13 months.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/25/trump-faces-health-questions-ahead-another-walter-reed-trip/
Trump faces health questions ahead of another Walter Reed trip
The president trumpets claims that he is in excellent health, but independent physicians say the White House hasn't answered key questions ahead of his third visit in 13 months.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/25/trump-faces-health-questions-ahead-another-walter-reed-trip/
Trump faces health questions ahead of another Walter Reed trip www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
— Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T14:30:12.096Z
President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to undergo his third scheduled medical checkup in 13 months, as outside physicians say they have persistent questions about the nearly 80-year-old president’s health and fitness.
Trump, the oldest president to ever be inaugurated, is scheduled to visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a medical and dental visit, the White House said earlier this month. The president went to Walter Reed in April 2025 for his annual physical exam — and returned in October for what officials characterized as a “scheduled follow-up,” sparking weeks of inquiries about Trump’s diagnosis and procedures that the White House repeatedly sidestepped.
Nearly three months after the visit, Trump and the White House clarified that the president had received a CT scan. His doctor, Sean Barbabella, described the imaging as preventive “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.”
While the White House has a round-the-clock medical team that can privately attend to the president if needed, Walter Reed has facilities for advanced imaging and other procedures. Trump also has made two visits to a Florida dentist since January, the White House has said, with officials saying those were for routine cleaning and care.
The White House has repeatedly said the president is in “excellent health,” including in response to questions this weekend, citing medical reports produced by White House physicians, including one from Barbabella in October that said Trump “remains in exceptional health."
Trump, the oldest president to ever be inaugurated, is scheduled to visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a medical and dental visit, the White House said earlier this month. The president went to Walter Reed in April 2025 for his annual physical exam — and returned in October for what officials characterized as a “scheduled follow-up,” sparking weeks of inquiries about Trump’s diagnosis and procedures that the White House repeatedly sidestepped.
Nearly three months after the visit, Trump and the White House clarified that the president had received a CT scan. His doctor, Sean Barbabella, described the imaging as preventive “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.”
While the White House has a round-the-clock medical team that can privately attend to the president if needed, Walter Reed has facilities for advanced imaging and other procedures. Trump also has made two visits to a Florida dentist since January, the White House has said, with officials saying those were for routine cleaning and care.
The White House has repeatedly said the president is in “excellent health,” including in response to questions this weekend, citing medical reports produced by White House physicians, including one from Barbabella in October that said Trump “remains in exceptional health."
May 25, 2026
Trump faces health questions ahead of another Walter Reed trip
Source: Washington Post
President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to undergo his third scheduled medical checkup in 13 months, as outside physicians say they have persistent questions about the nearly 80-year-old president’s health and fitness.
Trump, the oldest president to ever be inaugurated, is scheduled to visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a medical and dental visit, the White House said earlier this month. The president went to Walter Reed in April 2025 for his annual physical exam — and returned in October for what officials characterized as a “scheduled follow-up,” sparking weeks of inquiries about Trump’s diagnosis and procedures that the White House repeatedly sidestepped.
Nearly three months after the visit, Trump and the White House clarified that the president had received a CT scan. His doctor, Sean Barbabella, described the imaging as preventive “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.”
While the White House has a round-the-clock medical team that can privately attend to the president if needed, Walter Reed has facilities for advanced imaging and other procedures. Trump also has made two visits to a Florida dentist since January, the White House has said, with officials saying those were for routine cleaning and care.
The White House has repeatedly said the president is in “excellent health,” including in response to questions this weekend, citing medical reports produced by White House physicians, including one from Barbabella in October that said Trump “remains in exceptional health."
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/25/trump-faces-health-questions-ahead-another-walter-reed-trip
Trump faces health questions ahead of another Walter Reed trip www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
— Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T14:30:12.096Z
May 25, 2026
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-honors-those-who-helped-others-3ef
The Borowitz Report-Trump Honors Those Who Helped Others Avoid Service at Tomb of the Unknown Podiatrist
Trump Honors Those Who Helped Others Avoid Service at Tomb of the Unknown Podiatrist
— Captain Cliff ⛵🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@properlookout.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T11:35:49.113Z
open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-honors-those-who-helped-others-3ef
QUEENS, NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In what has become a Memorial Day tradition for him, on Monday Donald J. Trump laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Podiatrist.
Trump made his annual pilgrimage to pay homage to the heroic doctors who issued bogus diagnoses to ensure that their privileged patients never answered the call of duty.
In an emotional tribute, Trump thanked the fallen foot specialists who bravely risked their medical licenses so that others facing military service could be free.
Choking back tears, he said, “They gave everything so people like me could give nothing.”
Trump made his annual pilgrimage to pay homage to the heroic doctors who issued bogus diagnoses to ensure that their privileged patients never answered the call of duty.
In an emotional tribute, Trump thanked the fallen foot specialists who bravely risked their medical licenses so that others facing military service could be free.
Choking back tears, he said, “They gave everything so people like me could give nothing.”
May 25, 2026
https://www.ms.now/news/trumps-iran-deal-up-in-the-air-amid-gop-blowback
trump does not like blowback and may kill this "deal."
MS NOW-Trump's Iran deal up in the air amid GOP blowback
“We're talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran? How does that make sense at all?” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said.
Several Republicans are expressing skepticism about Trump’s framework of a peace deal with Iran as key details remain elusive
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-05-24T21:53:37.209Z
www.ms.now/news/trumps-...
https://www.ms.now/news/trumps-iran-deal-up-in-the-air-amid-gop-blowback
President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. and Iran have a framework of a peace deal was met Sunday with skepticism from key Republicans — and confusing claims from the president himself.
It remained unclear whether Iran would give up its cache of enriched uranium or reduce its vast missile stockpile — the two top goals that the U.S. and Israel announced when they attacked Iran nearly three months ago. The timing of a full agreement was also uncertain but it would not be signed on Sunday, a senior Trump administration official granted anonymity to discuss details told MS NOW......
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was blunt in his warning that the “rumored 60-day ceasefire” would be “a disaster.”
The proposal would give Iran 30 to 60 days to negotiate how to resolve its highly enriched uranium, according to The New York Times, which cited three senior Iranian officials.
Other GOP critics of the plan included Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and secretary of state in the first Trump administration, who denounced the framework as “not remotely America First.”
“It’s straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region,” Pompeo wrote on X Saturday.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said if the proposal allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon and effectively retain control over the Strait of Hormuz “then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.”
It remained unclear whether Iran would give up its cache of enriched uranium or reduce its vast missile stockpile — the two top goals that the U.S. and Israel announced when they attacked Iran nearly three months ago. The timing of a full agreement was also uncertain but it would not be signed on Sunday, a senior Trump administration official granted anonymity to discuss details told MS NOW......
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was blunt in his warning that the “rumored 60-day ceasefire” would be “a disaster.”
The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster. Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!
— Senator Roger Wicker (@SenatorWicker) May 23, 2026
The proposal would give Iran 30 to 60 days to negotiate how to resolve its highly enriched uranium, according to The New York Times, which cited three senior Iranian officials.
Other GOP critics of the plan included Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and secretary of state in the first Trump administration, who denounced the framework as “not remotely America First.”
“It’s straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region,” Pompeo wrote on X Saturday.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said if the proposal allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon and effectively retain control over the Strait of Hormuz “then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.”
trump does not like blowback and may kill this "deal."
May 24, 2026
https://www.graveinjustice.news/p/the-roberts-court-is-letting-the?r=49pqr&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
I still remember how shocked I was when I read the Shelby County case where Roberts gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (which provided for pre-clearance of major voting changes in certain states). Shelby County was racist decision based on the concept that non-whites did not need to be protected from attempts to disenfranchise their right to vote.
Roberts has earned the nickname "John Crow" Roberts
The Roberts Court Is Letting the (Former) Confederate States Hang a "Whites Only" Sign on the Legislative Door: Part 1
John Roberts Lost Ronald Reagan’s Battle to Erase Black Representation But Used the Supreme Court to Give Trump Whites-Only Maps–Will He Lose the War?
Great piece from the Roberts OG, @thelisagraves.bsky.social . Truly, she is Roberts's anti-Boswell.
— Michael Podhorzer (@mikepod.bsky.social) 2026-05-24T21:00:13.882Z
If you haven't subscribed to her Substack, what are you waiting for?
www.graveinjustice.news/p/the-robert...
https://www.graveinjustice.news/p/the-roberts-court-is-letting-the?r=49pqr&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
It is also a glaring sign of just how out of control and unjudicial the Roberts Court has become, openly usurping powers the Constitution explicitly grants to Congress to protect voting rights. The arrogance of John Roberts’ anti-voting-rights agenda is staggering, though it has likely not even reached its peak.
In the weeks since Callais, this faction of partisan political operatives on the nation’s highest court has repeatedly put its thumb on the scales of justice–over and over and over again–to benefit the Republican Party in this pivotal midterm election year. The Roberts Court issued this ruling knowing exactly how eagerly Southern legislatures would take up its obscene invitation to redraw their maps to suppress Black representation.
John Roberts may as well have ordered “Whites Only” signs to be printed and hung up on the doors of state legislatures in the South, just like the drinking fountains of yore. As my friend, the brilliant Mike Podhorzer, has dubbed it, this is a “neo-Confederate Court.”
Just look at how eagerly the Roberts Court has aided the party–and the super rich, regressive billionaires–that appointed it, to the disadvantage of Black Americans and our representative democracy. In February 2022, when Joe Biden was president, the Roberts Court blocked a lower court order requiring Alabama to redraw its congressional map, which had packed Black voters into a single district while creating six white-majority districts, despite the white population falling to 62%. The Roberts Court disingenuously claimed that the lower court’s January ruling came too close to the election to allow the maps to be changed, invoking what is known as the Purcell doctrine.....
Not only that, the Roberts Court didn’t even mention Purcell, even though citizens in Louisiana, for example, were already actively voting in an election. Meanwhile, when Democrats in Virginia attempted to counter these machinations by Trump and his minions, the Roberts Court allowed more than three million votes to be canceled out by another Republican-dominated court in Virginia.
There can be no doubt anymore that John Roberts is not a fair umpire. He is bent by his bias, his profound hostility toward the Voting Rights Act as he revealed in the Shelby case in 2013......
The court of public opinion is already delivering its verdict. John Roberts, who infamously said that if the public doesn’t like a ruling, “it’s just too bad,” is about to find out what can happen when you finally catch the whale. More and more people have no confidence in the fairness of the Roberts Court, which is acting as though it stands above the law itself–dictating changes to our rights in defiance of the popular will and dismantling protections that thousands of our representatives voted for and millions of Americans struggled for decades to secure.
Despite Roberts’ gaslighting that the court is not partisan, more and more of the public see these rulings for exactly what they are: hyperpartisan, imperious, illegitimate, and deeply racist. Together, we are going to rebuke and disempower operatives in judicial robes who dare to act as unaccountable kings, including “John Crow” Roberts himself.
In the weeks since Callais, this faction of partisan political operatives on the nation’s highest court has repeatedly put its thumb on the scales of justice–over and over and over again–to benefit the Republican Party in this pivotal midterm election year. The Roberts Court issued this ruling knowing exactly how eagerly Southern legislatures would take up its obscene invitation to redraw their maps to suppress Black representation.
John Roberts may as well have ordered “Whites Only” signs to be printed and hung up on the doors of state legislatures in the South, just like the drinking fountains of yore. As my friend, the brilliant Mike Podhorzer, has dubbed it, this is a “neo-Confederate Court.”
Just look at how eagerly the Roberts Court has aided the party–and the super rich, regressive billionaires–that appointed it, to the disadvantage of Black Americans and our representative democracy. In February 2022, when Joe Biden was president, the Roberts Court blocked a lower court order requiring Alabama to redraw its congressional map, which had packed Black voters into a single district while creating six white-majority districts, despite the white population falling to 62%. The Roberts Court disingenuously claimed that the lower court’s January ruling came too close to the election to allow the maps to be changed, invoking what is known as the Purcell doctrine.....
Not only that, the Roberts Court didn’t even mention Purcell, even though citizens in Louisiana, for example, were already actively voting in an election. Meanwhile, when Democrats in Virginia attempted to counter these machinations by Trump and his minions, the Roberts Court allowed more than three million votes to be canceled out by another Republican-dominated court in Virginia.
There can be no doubt anymore that John Roberts is not a fair umpire. He is bent by his bias, his profound hostility toward the Voting Rights Act as he revealed in the Shelby case in 2013......
The court of public opinion is already delivering its verdict. John Roberts, who infamously said that if the public doesn’t like a ruling, “it’s just too bad,” is about to find out what can happen when you finally catch the whale. More and more people have no confidence in the fairness of the Roberts Court, which is acting as though it stands above the law itself–dictating changes to our rights in defiance of the popular will and dismantling protections that thousands of our representatives voted for and millions of Americans struggled for decades to secure.
Despite Roberts’ gaslighting that the court is not partisan, more and more of the public see these rulings for exactly what they are: hyperpartisan, imperious, illegitimate, and deeply racist. Together, we are going to rebuke and disempower operatives in judicial robes who dare to act as unaccountable kings, including “John Crow” Roberts himself.
I still remember how shocked I was when I read the Shelby County case where Roberts gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (which provided for pre-clearance of major voting changes in certain states). Shelby County was racist decision based on the concept that non-whites did not need to be protected from attempts to disenfranchise their right to vote.
Roberts has earned the nickname "John Crow" Roberts
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Member since: Mon Apr 5, 2004, 04:58 PMNumber of posts: 182,409