What Alabama’s Defiance Says about the Supreme Court’s Legitimacy
Alabama, the reddest of red states, has decided to ignore a US Supreme Court ruling on gerrymandering that the state government doesn’t agree with. Governor Kay Ivey explaining the defiance, said, “The Legislature knows our state, our people, and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups.”
Now Ivey and all of her Republican colleagues in the Alabama State Legislature are part of a movement that has put considerable resources into getting the SCOTUS we have today — the one where a majority of right-wing Justices can’t take away our rights and freedoms away fast enough. But of course, the minute that bought and paid for SCOTUS majority issues a decision they don’t like, these same folks feel free to ignore it. Because grabbing power and imposing their will on the rest of us has always been the goal. A SCOTUS packed with right-wing idealogues was never more than a tool in service of that end.
Or, as the Atlantic’s Adam Serwer puts it:
“It is clear the right that views the Court as a political instrument for imposing conservative policy, and when the Court fails to heed its obligation to do so, they can simply ignore it. This is consistent with the movement’s Trumpist turn toward the belief that the legitimacy of any practice or institution — elections, fundamental…
