Transcription
This is Democracy Watch. Mark, we have breaking news right now as far as the Supreme Court is concerned. Can you explain what just happened at the hands of these justices?
Brian, you know, I I work hard to try to say that we have to have faith in the courts, but it is times like this that it's really hard. The US Supreme Court just ruled that Alabama can use a map for the 2026 election that has never been used before that in fact was blocked by a federal court previously for essentially disregarding the court's prior order. And this is in a case by the way Alabama where we had previously won. Remember we were all talking just a few years ago about uh the Milligan case, right? Remember that this is that case.
This is the aftermath of that case. So this is actually a case that we went to the Supreme Court and we won only now after Clay for the state of Alabama to adopt the map, the very map that it that it had been found to have tried to enact in violation of black voting rights and in in violation of the US Constitution. I mean, Brian, this is the reason why we need Supreme Court reform. This is the reason why we cannot trust the current Supreme Court to do even the minimal right thing. I mean, like, this one wasn't hard. I mean, it's one seat involving a state in which this Supreme Court already said that Alabama violated the law. And yet when Alabama comes up now, it's like, "All right, you want to trample on black voting rights, we're here for it."
I I think that's what strikes me so heavily about this is back in 2022, this Supreme Court ruled that Alabama had enacted illegal maps. And even though those maps were illegal, they were so hellbent on making sure that they didn't cause chaos uh in the leadup to an election because there were four months um between that ruling and the primary elections. 4 months was too much time. It would cause too much confusion among the voters. And so they said that Alabama had to um basically deal with uh an illegal map in that election cycle because they didn't want to do anything that would change a map too close to an election. Now we have voters who've already cast hundreds of thousands of ballots and yet this same Supreme Court, same justices in the same state are saying in fact this map can be overturned. This map can be changed even though all of these people have already voted. Forget 4 months away from an election. People are voting right now. And yet, these justices have decided that that's completely okay. The Purcell doctrine uh doesn't matter anymore. And uh and go ahead and change these maps even though plenty of people have already cast their ballots.
I wish it were only that bad. It's actually much worse. I mean, you are right that in 2021, in November 2021, my law firm filed a lawsuit challenging the Alabama maps. And by January, we had won.
And on February 7th, the US Supreme Court, February 7th of 2022, said it was too late to change the maps because the primary elections would take place four and a half months later. Yes. Okay. That is absolutely right. You're that is a that is a fact. And it is also a fact that the state of Alabama was the ones telling them it was too late. Right. The state of Alabama was like, "It's going to be too close to the election. We can't change things. We can't logistically get this done. Okay, that is part of why the hypocrisy here is so terrible. But what happens next beyond the fact that black voters then have to live under an unconstitutional illegal map for the 2022 election? Fast forward to 2023 and the state of Alabama tries to remedy the map by passing a new map. and that map. And you and I did videos on this. I hope everyone goes back and watches them. And by the way, while you're at it, subscribe to this channel because this is where you're getting the straight the straight truth about what's happening in courts. Okay? Right here. You know, Brian and I. There's no corporate overlord. There's no there's no venture capitalist, you know, hiding out off camera behind Brian. This is just him and me giving it to you straight. So, subscribe to this channel. Hit the hit the uh the bell to make sure you're alerted when there's new content. All right. So, so, but but here's the thing. They, you and I did videos on this. They they they passed a new map and the map was so cynical that the federal court said, "No, you can't use this new map. This new map actually doesn't remedy the harm that we found." Remember this? They drew a new map. And the new map essentially, I think the way I described it at the time is that Alabama stood in front of the the the schoolhouse doors with its arms crossed and said, "We're not going to comply with the court's order." And in fact, the court found that that new map did not comply with the court's order to draw a new map. So that case goes to the Supreme Court. We win. Well, Klay comes down, you know, the Louisiana case few months ago, few weeks ago. And all of a sudden, the states are rushing to do new things. So Alabama says, "We want to use that 2023 map, the very map that the court had found violated its court order that was non-compliant. We want to use that map." And once again, the lower court, three judges, and these are not liberal judges. These are Trump, these are conservative judges. They say, "No, you can't use that map because we've already said that map doesn't comply with the law or the Constitution." And besides, Alabama, you told us it was way too late. You know, you told us it was too late in February. Now we're in we're in, you know, the end of May, beginning of June.
And so, you know, here it is. The Supreme Court saying yes, they can use that map. They can use the very map that previously was found to violate the rights of black voters. And they can do it notwithstanding how close to the election it is. I mean as you point out like I mean this is ridiculous how to say it's close to the election over you know I don't know what the word is to about where we are with the election but but but that is what we're facing in this case. You know Klay was the worst opinion I think of my career. But the implementation, the shadow docket rulings both in Louisiana and now in Alabama just like they just rip the the the the you know the veil off. I mean like there's a you know black voters when when their rights are violated you know they need to wait and wait and wait because of Purcell when when the shoe is on the other foot this Supreme Court is like you know whatever states want to do is fine. And you know, it's worth noting here that you have been a champion in terms of exposing this stuff and fighting back against it. Um, oftentimes the only voice in the room to do so. So, a small step that everybody watching right now can take to support Mark's work and elevate his voice. Uh, especially in this fight where we need people like Mark to speak out. The best way to do that is to subscribe to Democracy Docket. That is his news outlet he founded to focus on everything voting in elections. I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. It is the single best resource that exists for all things voting rights and elections. So if you're not yet subscribed, that is an absolute must in terms of subscribing. I'm going to put that link again here on the screen and also in the post description. Mark, to that end, what needs to be done now? Like we we obviously know this is happening. We obviously have seen the extent to which all of these red states fell over themselves to redraw their maps. Everywhere from Texas to Florida, Ohio, uh, uh, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louis, Louisiana, Alabama, I mean, you name it. And meanwhile, the only place that we have to show any any movement from on the left is California. So, those are five seats compared with at least 12. But we know this is happening. We know that Republicans have no have no discernment or scruples when it comes to actually executing this stuff. There is no blind deference to procedures or norms or good governance. They have the courts on their side that are willing to overturn their own precedent. Um whereas they said a few years ago that you know there there's nothing more sacrosan than than than the PCEL doctrine and not confusing voters in the leadup to an election. Now they're like it. You know 100,000 people have already voted in Louisiana. Let's just rip up the maps and start again, you know, from new. So they've got every branch of government on their side. What needs to happen on the left to counteract all that we're seeing right now?
Yeah, we need to be doing two things simultaneously. First of all, we need to redistrict with a ferocity that we frankly have not seen Democrats do. I mean, look, I I I look at this clip. This was you and I talking at the time that California was redrawing its map. Look, Republicans don't care about democracy. You know, Republicans support Donald Trump because an authoritarian and they will abuse every norm. They will violate every tradition. They will seek to weaponize every law, every practice, everything that they can in order to gain power for the sake of having power. And they are not going to be deterred from doing that if they, you know, turn a grotesque map into an obscene map in Texas. And our response is, "Okay, well, we found, you know, four or five seats of our own." They they will take that as a win, right? Because they've done what they want and then, as you say, they will move on to Missouri, they'll move on to Florida, they'll move on to Ohio, uh they will move on to Utah, uh they will move on to, you know, wherever will be their next place. And they will not be deterred. What we need to do is we need to recognize that if we want to stop the slide of democracy, we as Democrats, we as people in the pro-democracy movement need to tell them that if they take five seats, we're going to put 30 seats on the table, right? Because they need to understand that there will not just be parody if things go against them, but actually if they guess wrong and and this this winds up escalating, they could wind up on the severe losing side. So when people say to me, you know, don't bring a a knife to a gunfight, I don't even want to bring a gun to a gunfight, you know, I want to bring something more than a gun to the gunfight, right? I want to bring missiles to the gunfight. I want to bring hand grenades to the gunfight because I want the other side to understand that not only are we going to fight as hard as them but we are going to fight smarter than them. All right. So this was me saying look we need to be not just matching what Republicans are doing. This was you know this was at the time saying look we need to go further. We need California to go further. And that was assuming at the time Brian that if California went we would see every blue state follow in line. And and you're exactly right like we didn't see that.
And we need to see democratic controlled states just absolutely go pedal to the metal for 2028 and 2030 and 2032 and and and spare no spare no Republicans in their states. And that's California, that's New York, it's Colorado. You know, Colorado, we spend a lot of time and appropriately so complaining and and and denouncing the governor there, the Democratic governor.
Because of what he did with Tina Peters. But but well, look what he did with redistricting. Look what they did with redistricting. He did nothing. He did nothing in the face of an attack on democracy. He Jared Pis did nothing. And you know, those of you out there who think that Brian, oh, you know, we only ever talk positive about Democrats and and negative about Republicans, go look at Brian's interview for for of Jared Polus going back um months before it was popular, before the Tina Peter stuff. I want to make sure we put that link uh you know in the description here because Brian called this out at the time when most Democrats were not willing to. But we need to be willing to say that if you are a Democrat and you are not maximizing seat count to offset what Republicans are doing, you're just not up for the you're not up for the job. And the second thing, Brian, is we need court reform. Like we just need court reform. Like like you know we need to you know Joe Biden came in and they set up this big commission and the Biden commission came out with a conclusion that nothing really needed to change and that we can't have and and look you just wrote an important book that's coming out
that actually talks about what Democrats need to do when we take power and I hope everyone buys that book. I mean I hope everyone understands what we're up against and buys Brian's book and reads it or takes it out from the library. Get it wherever you want, but read it because we need to be, you know, bolder and more forward thinking and more aggressive than, frankly, we have seen from Democratic presidents uh and administrations in recent times. So, I'm going to ask you one more time to put another link up, and that's to pre-order that book.
Well, I appreciate that. And the book is the book's called The Day After. I'm going to put a link to pre-order that book right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. If you'd like to support my work, that is the single best way to do so. Last question here, Mark, for you and that is if Democrats are able to do that, is there a world where we can actually overcome the structural disadvantages that we're contending with right now as far as at least the House is concerned?
Yeah, I don't know. Look, I don't know whether the number how the numbers will ultimately shake out and there's no guarantee it will wind up to our favor. But I know this, the Republicans are going to maximize their seat count anyway. Like they're doing they're going to do this. I mean, if you think that they are done, you are mistaken. They will come back in 2027 and they will rejerrymander all of these states more aggressively and they'll jerrymander other states that even haven't. I mean, you'll you'll again hear calls from Republicans and to go to New Hampshire, to go to Indiana, you know, in other states where South Carolina, states where Republicans didn't, they will uh they will be back, but also so will Alabama, Louisiana. So will Florida, right? And so and and so will Utah, right? Like so we need and Texas. So, we need to like not worry about trying to offset what Republicans are doing. We just need to play our game and go aggressively as possible. And hopefully, if we do that, it might actually cause some Republican incumbents to push the Republican party to agree to have reform. Like, I'm in favor of reform, but only when it's on both on equal terms. Yeah. I'm not on unilateral surrender reform.
Yep. That is that is perfectly put. And we need people who um you know, you have Kevin Kylie who's coming out and speaking about it, speaking out against uh the scourge of gerrymandering, but only after he personally was impacted. But every Republican in any blue state should be on notice right now that, you know, in a world where Democrats are actually going to fight fire with fire, that these people are going to be redrawn out of their seats. And so hopefully these people are taking this opportunity now before it actually happens in the leadup to 2028 to tell Mike Johnson, to tell John Thun, to tell any leadership in the Republican party that if they don't get on board uh with some national anti-jerrymandering legislation that they're going to be drawn out of their seats as well. So um you know, it remains to be seen what's going to happen, but again, you have been an absolute champion in terms of calling this stuff out, calling it out early, certainly earlier than anybody on the else on the left has been. So again, to elevate Mark's voice in this ecosystem, please subscribe to Democracy Docket. That link is right here on the screen and also in the post description. A link to my book, The Day After, is also right here on the screen. If you haven't had a chance to pre-order, please go ahead and do that. I'm Brian Teller Cohen.
I'm Mark Elias.
This is Democracy Watch.