TEXAS, USA — If you’re still trying to wrap your head around some of the recent bombshell Supreme Court rulings, you're not alone.
These decisions -- from denying legislatures absolute power over elections in their states to choosing a side in a battle between LGBTQ rights and a business owner’s religious beliefs to “gutting” affirmative action in college admissions -- have the potential to impact your daily life.
"I guess the best thing that can be said is affirmative action tomorrow is not going to look anything like affirmative action yesterday -- and affirmative action as we’ve known it for our lifetime is dead," Stephen Vladeck told the Jasons on the latest episode of Y'all-itics.
Vladeck is not only a well-known professor at the University of Texas Law School in Austin and the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts; he's also one of the country’s preeminent constitutional law experts.
He said that one of the biggest surprises of the Supreme Court's just-wrapped term was the ruling that struck down Republicans’ newly redrawn congressional map in Alabama because it diluted minority votes. The Court made a similar decision involving the Louisiana congressional map.
Those decisions clear the way for new maps to be drawn in those states, and possibly even other states in the future.
And those new boundaries? They could lead to a significant shift in the nation’s political landscape.
"There's a very good chance that reactions to this decision, if not in Texas then at least in other states, could go a long way toward helping Democrats reclaim a majority of the House in 2024, which just goes back to the point about how big a deal it was that the Supreme Court intervened last term to allow these states to use these maps in the 2022 cycle," Vladeck said.
But the big thing Vladeck said this Supreme Court will be remembered for likely isn’t what you think.
He said that what makes the current court different than any of its predecessors is neither these decisions, nor the conservative majority -- but instead its lack of accountability.
Said Vladeck: "The extent to which the court is not beholden to Congress and doesn’t think it ought to be beholden to Congress -- that’s a departure from historical understandings."
Perspective is important when understanding these Supreme Court decisions, and when listening to modern debates concerning the U.S. Supreme Court, its makeup, its ethics and its accountability. The Jasons and Professor Vladeck provide just that, so be sure to listen to the entire episode of Y’all-itics. Cheers!
