This Court Has Abandoned the Most Essential Element in American Democracy: Voters

Some Supreme Court watchers found relief in the Court’s recent decisions, many of which were narrow and stopped short of overturning major precedents. But two rulings underscore what Americans need to know about the post-Trump Court: It isn’t invested in defending the rights of American voters, the Constitution’s core demographic, with the same vigor that it applies to the interests of nonpersons, such as corporations.

In two cases decided on the same day, the Court signaled its side. In , a 6–3 majority watered down what’s left of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on the rationale that voters showed insufficient harm to overcome Arizona’s reasons for limiting access to the ballot box. In , conversely, a fractured conservative majority—with Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas joining in the outcome but on differing rationales set forth in a spate of concurring opinions—rejected California’s justifications for a law requiring charitable organizations to reveal their donors, instead staunchly defending the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs, even with no showing