The chief justice defends court’s impartiality after decisions on abortion, presidential immunity and voting rights
US chief justice John Roberts has insisted supreme court judges are not “political actors” amid outrage over its recent decision undermining the Voting Right Act, and other moves that have benefited Donald Trump and his allies.
Roberts leads a court on which conservatives have held a six-justice majority since 2020, and handed down a series of decisions that have upended longstanding precedent and, in Trump’s second term, allowed many of his policies to take effect, at least temporarily.
Last week’s decision on the Voting Rights Act has greenlit a scramble by Republican-led states to enact new congressional maps that will break up districts drawn to elect Black lawmakers, who tend to be Democrats. That may amount to a major blow to the party’s long-term chances of controlling the US House of Representatives.
The court has also expanded use of a fast-track process known as the “shadow docket” to temporarily pause lower court rulings against the Trump administration, including his mass deportation policies and gutting of federal departments.
the midterms and what happens after that will be a test of that but I wouldn’t declare it dead yet. Just like recent events have shown Orban did not manage to kill Hungary’s democracy in his 16 years of power.
At the same time Trump and the Republicans are certainly moving much faster than Orban was so I’m definitely not saying it will take as long as that if they manage to finish the job.
They have already thrown out the results of a primary because they don’t like them. They’re redistricting like crazy to their own benefit right now. They’ve already clawed back decades of voter equality laws.
The midterms are already completely compromised and their outcome is already absolute bullshit.
No, it’s dead.
Democracy isn’t dead even when the system has been gamed to an extent if there’s still a way to win even unfair elections. Hungary is a very recent example of that. Poland is another from a few years back. It’ll be dead if they ever get to a point where it’s like Russia and the results are that in every election Putin gets a 99% victory but until they do elections are a viable way to fight back.