Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

Justice Samuel Alito Got Out Of Bed on The Perry Mason Side

Oct 14, 2023

The podcast discusses a Supreme Court case involving a racial gerrymander disguised as a political one. It explores the impact of gerrymandering on the Gullah people and their cultural preservation. The speakers express frustration with ongoing voting rights issues and the difficulty of proving circumstantial evidence. They analyze the evidence and lower court decisions in racial gerrymandering cases and emphasize the importance of addressing racial issues and protecting voting rights.

49:53

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

The Supreme Court's conservatives appear inclined to dismiss evidence of racial gerrymandering in the South Carolina case, potentially setting a dangerous precedent for future cases on voting rights.

The South Carolina gerrymandering case raises broader implications for the Gullah community, highlighting issues of gentrification, representation, and preservation of cultural rights.

Deep dives

The Case: South Carolina Gerrymandering

The podcast episode discusses a significant case regarding the South Carolina gerrymandering presented in the Supreme Court. The court heard arguments about a racial gerrymander that was disguised as a non-justiciable political gerrymander. The case focuses on whether race was the predominant reason for assigning voters to particular districts. The evidence presented in the case includes a voluminous record showing a significant sorting of voters on the basis of race. The court also found that black voters were disproportionately moved out of one district and that race was a better predictor than partisanship in assigning voters to districts.

Introduction

4min

Land Ownership, Racial Gerrymandering, and Cultural Preservation

9min

Frustration and Challenges in Being Heard

1min

Analyzing Evidence and Comparing Cases

5min

Analyzing a Lower Court Decision in a Racial Gerrymandering Case

5min

Disregard and Manipulation: Issues Raised in the Chapter

23min

In this week’s big voting rights case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning whether to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that is avowedly partisan (everyone agrees it favors Republicans, but partisan gerrymanders are A-OK under SCOTUS precedent). What is disputed here is whether the mapmakers relied on race to reach their partisan aims. A three-judge panel in South Carolina found it to be a racial gerrymander, and threw out the map. In arguments on Wednesday, it became clear that the high court’s conservatives would rather toss out the evidence the lower court used to reach its decision, an unusual move for the highest court in the land, but perhaps the bed it’s made for itself after ruling partisan gerrymanders non justiciable in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019. And so SCOTUS cos-played as a trial court for two hours on Wednesday.

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who argued the case on behalf of the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, and Taiwan Scott - a South Carolina voter and individual plaintiff in the case, who says the electoral power of his Gullah Geechee community is suppressed by the gerrymander.

Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25 percent discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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