The Gutting of the Voting Rights Act

On this very special 4th of July episode (No. 15) of Legal AF, MeidasTouch’s Sunday law and politics podcast, hosts MT founder and civil rights lawyer, Ben Meiselas and national trial lawyer and strategist, Michael Popok examine Chief Justice Roberts continued assault on fairness in the election funding and voting process. First, Ben—podcasting from "outer space"—and a very terrestrial Popok explore the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority and Justice Alito’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the 15th Amendment, in finding that Arizona’s new voter suppression laws making mail in voting harder, and disenfranchising accidental wrong precinct voting, are constitutional. Ben also observes that Alito’s "five factor" analysis to be used in future VRA cases addressing the time, method and means of voting, is not only "made up," but will be used to kill what’s left of the law the next time around. Popok gives Ben a “Pop” quiz on which chief justice from 200+ years ago set the course for how the Supreme Court operates today. Next, the LAF co-hosts dissect Chief Justice Roberts’ majority decision finding that California’s attempts to regulate charity fraud through disclosure of major donors is overbroad and violative of the First Amendment and its freedom of association clause, allowing even more dark money to flood into our electoral system. The co-hosts round out the Supreme Court review with a look at decisions this term that address social rather than political and electoral issues, including a decision to leave in place a lower court’s ruling that discriminating against transgender people by forcing them to not use the bathroom that aligns with their identity violates the 14th Amendment and Title IX. SCOTUS' inconsistent approach to social and religious issues this term is also discussed. Next up, a topic of the LAF law school students have been waiting for: Cosby and the 5th Amendment, where Ben and Michael respectfully disagree on what Cosby was promised by prosecutors before he sat for a civil deposition, and debate whether the 5th Amendment is more important than any one celebrity defendant, no matter his crimes. And of course, no LAF podcast would be complete without a hard look at NY’s indictment of the Trump Organization and its long-time CFO on 15 counts of tax fraud, the existence of a Trump “second set of books,” and what it may mean for the Former 45 and family in the near term. Easter Egg Alert: Back by popular demand, more Popok Paper Crumpling!

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