Voting Rights in Alabama

Back to the drawing board for Alabama congressional maps.

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Did Alabama violate the Voting Rights Act? How do you pronounce Gingles? And what are the tea leaf predictions for the Harvard discrimination case? Join Sarah and David to answer these questions and:

-Who’s the lucky dog in the Jack Daniels case

-Is Justice Gorsuch overcharging his friends on Venmo?

-What happens when David puts on his woke hat?

-Will there be an emergency pod coming up?

-Who the hell is Mupp?

Show Notes:

-Allen v Milligen

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Comments (85)
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  1. Pvossneb

    What’s next now that Alabama legislators apparently chose to ignore the Supreme Court?

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  2. Jrtownson

    This one depressed me. It sounds like SCOTUS carved out a racial quota where the law does not support one.
    But maybe more importantly, in response to Davids 'systemic racism" : the idea that we can correct the racial injustices of the past by dissimilar racial treatment today....its like quicksand, the more you move the more you sink (though I realize the movie version of quicksand was probably inaccurate, still a good analogy !)

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  3. Karin

    On pronunciation, I was taught that with names derived from German with a double vowel, the rule was that the correct pronunciation rhymes with the second vowel, when said as a long vowel. So Stein is stine. Following this rule, David would be correct that Lied is said as leed.

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  4. Francislyo

    David nailed it on Alabama gerrymandering! He stated that Thomas was making a conceptual mistake from the beginning by importing race neutrality into a standard (Voting Rights Act) that is explicitly not race-neutral. "You can go race-neutral with a computer algorithm and you can create a gerrymander that cuts out black voters, but that doesn't mean that it isn't in its origin … steeped in race."

    Well said, David! In this age of algorithms we shouldn’t be babes in the woods.

    You can use a Neural Network to test a set of input variables (ex: income, health care, zip code), none of them race, and swap them in or out until you get the result you want in terms of racial gerrymandering. Where there's extreme racial polarization, as in Alabama, this is trivial. But even where there is not extreme racial polarization in voting (ex: California), variables could still be found to distinguish race (ex: religious denominational affiliation or lack thereof). The combination of whatever “non-racial” factors the algorithm finds could do the job of racial gerrymandering in many states.

    Based on info in this pod, in Alabama voting patterns alone would be an effective proxy for race - no need to get fancy as described above.

    The Gingles test should Not be thrown out! It’s trivially easy to use a variety of algorithms to find proxies for race. If a future Alabama legislature used such proxies to eliminate the last remaining Black majority district, would Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Barrett find it unconstitutional to throw out the gerrymander? I hope not.

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  5. Jstevenson85

    David’s correct on the pronunciation of Lied.

    We are all in agreement that Shelby County is trash yeah? Equal state sovereignty is found nowhere in the text of the constitution and is ahistorical. Roberts usurped the authority of congress and I hate it.

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  6. Brian L

    Regarding the 14th amendment and the the Gorsuch concurrence in Dubin, have y'all had an episode or is there anything you can link to about how an average non-lawyer American is supposed to learn the law?

    I'm pretty sure we covered the Constitution and some of the Amendments in school. I'm probably most familiar with gun laws & driving laws b/c I had a test for drivers license and concealed carry.

    I came away with the distinct feeling that whether or not the statue was vague, there is no way on I'd ever have learned about it unless I was being charged with something.

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    Denise Cote

    Hey Sarah, lots of people use venmo, even old boomers like me 😂
    And some people are better at math than others. I know you're wonderful, but don't tell me you've never made a mistake (after a nice dinner with wine). 😁

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    Ben Connelly

    So here’s me thinking, “Jack Daniels? What did the legendary coach in long distance running (at whose foundational book I am staring right now) do to get into a Supreme Court case?”

    And then of course it turned out to be that other Jack Daniels…

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  9. Michaelmrosen

    Great episode, as always. But David, your suggestion that the Jack Daniel's case didn't involve "critiquing the effect of bourbon on society" was inapposite. I would expect that you of all people, as a native son of Kentucky and a current resident of Tennessee, would appreciate the fine but critical distinction between bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. Alas... (Good history here, BTW: https://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-styles/american-whiskey/jack-daniels-bourbon-definitive-answer/)

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    Kevin.Lanik

    As a lifelong Nebraskan I can tell you that David is right (for once) it’s pronounced like “lead” as in “Pittsburg is in the lead in the NL Central”

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