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Deadline Legal Blog-Alabama order further weakens John Roberts' claim that justices aren't 'political actors'
The GOP-appointed Supreme Court majority handed a win to Alabama Republicans in the nationwide redistricting war.
Alabama order further weakens John Roberts’ claim that justices aren’t ‘political actors’
— US News Now - World’s leading Liberal Voice (@democracyblue.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T13:52:20.666Z
The GOP-appointed Supreme Court majority handed a win to Alabama Republicans in the nationwide redistricting war. www.ms.now/deadline-whi...
https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/alabama-supreme-court-john-roberts-apolitical-justices
It was hard to take Chief Justice John Roberts seriously when he said last week that Supreme Court justices aren’t “political actors.”
That’s not only because he made the remark coming off the court’s latest kneecapping of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, where the justices split 6-3 along the party lines of the presidents who appointed them, but also due to other recent rulings in which the GOP-appointed majority delivered decisions that align with Republican political goals.
The court’s latest election-related action on Monday night further weakened Roberts’ claim of apoliticism.....
In arguing that there was “no reason” for the high court to intervene on Alabama’s behalf, Sotomayor noted that the district court relied not only on the voting rights section the majority just gutted in Callais, but also on a finding that Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
“That constitutional finding of intentional discrimination is independent of, and unaffected by, any of the legal issues discussed in Callais,” the justice wrote, leading her to deem Supreme Court intervention “inappropriate.” Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor worried that the majority’s move “will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”
She further recalled that the Supreme Court had previously sided against Alabama in a 2023 case, Allen v. Milligan. In that one, Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the three Democratic appointees to form a majority in a surprise 5-4 ruling that supported the district court’s finding that the state’s map likely violated the section of the Voting Rights Act now gutted by Callais.
“This Court’s finding of racially discriminatory vote dilution is an inextricable, permanent feature of this case, and Alabama’s willful decision to respond by entrenching rather than remedying that dilution is, as the District Court correctly recognized, evidence of discriminatory intent,” Sotomayor wrote. ....
And what’s the majority’s response to the dissent’s charge of an untoward intervention? As too often happens on the shadow docket: nothing.
In public remarks, justices have urged the public to read their opinions to understand their work. But this case is the latest example of only one side sharing its reasoning. If pressed to sum up that raw exercise of power in a word, “political” is one way to put it.
That’s not only because he made the remark coming off the court’s latest kneecapping of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, where the justices split 6-3 along the party lines of the presidents who appointed them, but also due to other recent rulings in which the GOP-appointed majority delivered decisions that align with Republican political goals.
The court’s latest election-related action on Monday night further weakened Roberts’ claim of apoliticism.....
In arguing that there was “no reason” for the high court to intervene on Alabama’s behalf, Sotomayor noted that the district court relied not only on the voting rights section the majority just gutted in Callais, but also on a finding that Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
“That constitutional finding of intentional discrimination is independent of, and unaffected by, any of the legal issues discussed in Callais,” the justice wrote, leading her to deem Supreme Court intervention “inappropriate.” Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor worried that the majority’s move “will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.”
She further recalled that the Supreme Court had previously sided against Alabama in a 2023 case, Allen v. Milligan. In that one, Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the three Democratic appointees to form a majority in a surprise 5-4 ruling that supported the district court’s finding that the state’s map likely violated the section of the Voting Rights Act now gutted by Callais.
“This Court’s finding of racially discriminatory vote dilution is an inextricable, permanent feature of this case, and Alabama’s willful decision to respond by entrenching rather than remedying that dilution is, as the District Court correctly recognized, evidence of discriminatory intent,” Sotomayor wrote. ....
And what’s the majority’s response to the dissent’s charge of an untoward intervention? As too often happens on the shadow docket: nothing.
In public remarks, justices have urged the public to read their opinions to understand their work. But this case is the latest example of only one side sharing its reasoning. If pressed to sum up that raw exercise of power in a word, “political” is one way to put it.
Roberts is a political hack who has always hated the Voting Rights Act. This was a purely political decision. Sotomayor's dissent is amazing and makes clear that under Roberts the court is a political racist organization