Democrats just launched a missile at the GOP's fortress of minority rule

[Zorro]

Behind all the messy maneuvering in Congress right now is a hidden story: To an underappreciated degree, Democrats just launched a broadside against the edifice of minority rule that Republicans are busy constructing, in every way they possibly can, as a bulwark against our democratic future.

After House Democrats passed the $3.5 trillion blueprint to move the ”human infrastructure” bill’s process forward on Tuesday, they also passed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Tucked inside that bill are provisions that take direct aim at minority rule, but not in an obvious way. We often talk about individual features of our system — voter suppression, extreme gerrymanders, the electoral college — as anti-majoritarian. But we don’t talk enough about how various features interlock to create anti-majoritarian structures that are more impregnable than the sum of their parts.

The Lewis act’s key provisions restore federal preclearance requirements for changes in voting rules, and make it easier to challenge discriminatory voter suppression measures, both responses to the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, in 2013 and this year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/25/democrats-just-launched-missile-gops-fortress-minority-rule/

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. Won't the Kavanaugh Courts simply

gut the Lewis Act as well, since it will be challenged as soon as implemented, if implemented?

[CousinIT]

2. If it can even pass in the senate...lots of Dems

would rather cling to their goddamned filibuster, even as Democracy dies, than pass this or S1 For The People Act.

As I understand it, the John Lewis VRAA would prevent minority rule abuses going forward, and For The People Act would invalidate those laws being passed in the states to eliminate or suppress Democratic votes - so BOTH are needed.

Unfortunately DINO Manchin and a few others won't get off their goddamned filibusters to pass them.

Then the American-Taliban-stacked supreme court would strike them down.

[WHITT]

3. Then

that's the queue to expand the court to 13 justices.

[Miguelito Loveless]

5. We should be doing that now, and 15 justices

We need to play hard ball like these people do, but we apparently don't have the will.

[qazplm135]

8. Filibuster

It ain't happening.

[RicROC]

18. minimum 13 justices, 1 per each federal circuit.

but I prefer a court of 19 with revolving terms. Maybe 13 Justices serve an X # of years, (16?) + 6 Justices who serve a much shorter time.

[monkeyman1]

9. offer kegger free beer for life & I guarantee ya you'll win all kind's of stuff !!

[Magoo48]

4. It isn't spring.

yet DINOs, wannabe Republicans and plants are in full bloom.

[turbinetree]

6. Anyone hear about the commission that Biden asked for about expanding the courts....

this is the last time they met....

https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/07/bidens-court-reform-commission-hears-from-experts-on-term-limits-and-judicial-review/

[WHITT]

13. I'd Like To See

Speaker Pelosi pass expansion of the SCOTUS to 13 justices, and just sit on it. Shot across the bow of the RightWing Gang of Six, that you can be taken down.

[Joinfortmill]

21. YES!

[left-of-center2012]

7. It won't get past the Senate

[mwooldri]

10. Hmmm.... Another silly idea....

Attach the voting rights act to the reconciliation bill. Have Kamala override the parliamentarian. Whip all Democratic Senators to vote for it. Voila, filibuster technically not broken but circumvented.

[Justice matters.]

11. Recon still needs 50 votes + Kamala.

Cinema and Machin DINOs = 48 + 0 + 0 + Kamala = Fail.

[WHITT]

12. But

if Schumer ties the two bills together on one vote, if Machin & Sinema vote against the reconciliation bill, they vote against the Repub corporate bill.

[Demsrule86]

24. The infrastructure bill is a good bill and we absolutely need it...already passed the Senate.

[WHITT]

27. Once Again

The infrastructure bill is a good bill...

It's not a "good bill", it's a Repub Corporate anti-worker anti-consumer bill.

...already passed the Senate.

But all the Speaker has to do is modify ONE line, and then it must go back to the Senate for another vote.

[Demsrule86]

28. That is simply untrue and why moderates did what they did. As for modifying one line...Nancy

Pelosi won't do that. She is way too smart. We will get infrastructure but we don't know if the reconciliation bill will pass. This is a good bill and you should read it.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/infrastructure-bill-explained/index.html

[WHITT]

29. UH

Pelosi won't do that. She is way too smart.

It's HER idea. Of course she's smart.

I've already read the Repub Corporate bill. Apparently you haven't read the horrendous pay-for sections.

But, you're free to give credence to whatever unsubstantiated beliefs you like.

[FBaggins]

23. That's the "nuclear option" that at least two Democratic senators have rejected

So the "whip all Democratic senators to vote for it" puts us right back where we started.

Even more so since at this point, the reconciliation bill doesn't even have all of the remaining 48 behind it.

What makes it harder still is that reconciliation is not merely a matter of Senate rules re: what can and can't be filibustered. It's a law... which means that whether a bill is eligible for reconciliation is not just a matter for the parliamentarian or even the Senate as a whole... it's open to court challenges.

[quakerboy]

14. Fired a blanki

Unless theres some indication that the senate will pass it as well, its somewhere between a dud and a blank. Not even a warning shot.

[BootinUp]

22. i am also skeptical. nt

[FBaggins]

26. It's really just a PR effort

So that they can go back to their districts and tell their voters that they voted on what they promised they would. It's someone else's fault that it isn't a law... so go vote against those people.

[Hekate]

15. KnR

[Hortensis]

16. "bill represents recognition that "the greatest threat to voting rights" may be SCOTUS.

That recognition is all over it. God. What times we live in.

[Joinfortmill]

20. Amen.

[Martin68]

17. The problem will be to get it through the Senate.

[Joinfortmill]

19. One step closer. Next, the fillabuster.

[Hortensis]

25. Umhm. One step closer.