Crazy Sammy’s House of Neoconfederacy
By 
Because nothing in contemporary American politics is ever subtle, the week in which Sam Alito’s hobby of hanging seditionist flags was revealed is also the week the Supreme Court upheld South Carolina’s racial gerrymander. And of course the Chief handed the case to his most trusted lieutenant on issues of race and voting rights:
“Legislatures may discriminate on the basis of race as long as they are also trying to provide an unfair, anti-democratic advantage to the party Sam Alito prefers” is pretty much the ultimate Roberts Court holding. It’s like Footnote Four for the 21st century pic.twitter.com/2XafBQJcyM— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) May 23, 2024
Alito — who believed that Princeton should not accept female matriculants in the 70s and highlighting this when applying to government jobs in the 80s — also accuses Kagan of misconstruing an opinion that she wrote:
Alito says Kagan's dissent is "based on an imaginary version" of Cooper v. Harris—a decision that Kagan herself wrote. I feel like she probably knows the meaning of her own words! https://t.co/fAuM8lG7Gu pic.twitter.com/yhH7DvR6EU— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 23, 2024
And, as Kagan notes, Alito dissented in that case and makes the same arguments here without admitting that he’s overruling the precedent:
It does no immediate good, of course, but Kagan’s dissent is excellent:
District Court: [extensive evidence that SC legislators used racial data to construct their gerrymander]
SC: "Um, nu-uh"
Alito: good enough to survive even clear error review! pic.twitter.com/lVYdOgfwWo— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) May 23, 2024
Given the facts here, for all intents and purposes racial gerrymandering — or at least any racial gerrymandering that helps the Republican Party — is now constitutional:
The bottom line: racial gerrymandering, at least if it benefits the Republican Party, is now effectively constitutional pic.twitter.com/1muxhNgovX— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) May 23, 2024
I assume Alito has a third home flying a Confederate flag. Meanwhile, Thomas had an even more insane concurrence, but we’ll leave that to another post.