December 07, 2022
Page 9
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o piNioN
How We Can Influence the Courts that Influence Our Lives?
As I write this, the final few races are
being called in the midterm elections that
were held weeks ago. It’s clear that that the
House will be closely divided, with Re-
publicans holding a very small majority.
History shows that in midterm elections,
the party that doesn’t hold the presidency
typically gains a lot of seats in Congress
– oftentimes in a wipeout of the party in
power. Republicans’ gains were compar-
atively tiny this year – but they probably
should have been even tinier.
The reason is the far-right Supreme
Court, and two rulings that hurt Black vot-
ers this cycle.
Two Deep South states, Alabama and
Louisiana, redrew congressional maps
months before the midterms. Incredibly,
given the high proportion of Black voters
in those states, the maps allowed for only
one majority-Black congressional district
in each state. That is almost certainly a
violation of the Voting Rights Act, which
prohibits states from packing minority
voters into fewer districts in a way that
reduces their power. And you don’t have
to take my word for it; federal courts said
the same thing and ordered both states to
redraw their maps.
But state officials opposed to Black
voting power fought back. And in both in-
stances, the Supreme Court allowed them
to go ahead with this year’s midterm elec-
tions with maps that just happened to pre-
Ben Jealous
serve “safe” Republican seats.
It’s infuriating. And those are only two
of the infuriating decisions that have come
out of this Court since Donald Trump and
Mitch McConnell succeeded in stacking it
with enough ultraconservative justices to
make a supermajority.
I know that the inner workings of the
courts, especially the Supreme Court, can
seem really remote in our day-to-day lives.
Most people don’t know any judges, and if
they meet one in court it’s probably hap-
pening on a very unpleasant day. In fact,
my guess is that a lot of people would rath-
er not think much about the courts at all.
But we have to.
We need to pay attention to who sits on
our courts and how they get there, because
there is such an enormous impact on our
lives whether we realize it or not. The Su-
preme Court’s impact on the House majori-
ty is just one example. Those actions by the
Court will affect what business gets done
in Congress and what laws get passed – or
not passed – that impact how we live and
what rights we have.
Judges get their seats in different ways,
especially at the state level. If you live in
a place where state-level judges are elect-
ed, it’s critically important to get informed
and vote in those judicial elections. When
it comes to federal judges, the Senate de-
cides who will be confirmed. So every time
you cast a vote for a senator, it should be
for the candidate who will vote to confirm
fair-minded judges with a commitment to
civil rights. The Biden administration has
been doing a very good job nominating
diverse, highly qualified judges who have
this commitment. I believe in supporting
senators who have voted to confirm these
judges and withholding support from those
who haven’t.
The same goes for the presidential elec-
tion, which we will face again in less than
two years. In 2016, Donald Trump ran
on a platform to name far-right judges to
$250,000 Awarded to Protesters
(AP) — The city of Portland, Oregon,
has reached a $250,000 settlement to a
federal lawsuit over its police bureau’s
use of tear gas and other crowd control
devices during the racial justice protests
that rocked its streets in 2020, court doc-
uments show.
Under the settlement filed Tuesday in
U.S. District Court in Portland, the city
agreed to pay the $250,000 to five dem-
onstrators who alleged they were subject
to tear gas while protesting lawfully.
The city also agreed to stop using rub-
ber ball distraction devices, commonly
known as flash-bang grenades, and to
dismantle its remaining stock under
an injunction that will last 14 months.
While the plaintiffs’ ability to enforce
the injunction will lapse after that time
period, one of their attorneys, Juan
Chavez, said he would be “perplexed” if
the city reintroduced the devices.
The injunction additionally requires
police to restrict their use of tear gas,
pepper spray, less-lethal launchers and
long-range acoustic devices in accor-
dance with bureau policy and state law.
The lawsuit was originally filed by
the nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland in
June 2020 as protests following the
death of George Floyd in Minneapolis
erupted nightly on Portland’s streets, at
times prompting violent clashes between
police and demonstrators.
the Supreme Court who would ultimately
overturn Roe v. Wade. That’s exactly what
happened when he won, and now the Court
is moving on to do other damage, too – like
denying Black voters fair representation in
Congress.
So what do we do? We get informed, we
organize, and we vote in the next election –
the same thing we do to confront so many
issues this country faces. Next election
seems too far away? There is something
you can do in the meantime. Call your sen-
ators and tell them to confirm the federal
judicial nominees that are still waiting for
a Senate vote between now and the end of
the year. There are literally dozens of nom-
inees picked by President Biden, including
many people of color and nominees with
strong civil rights backgrounds, just wait-
ing for Senate action to take their seats on
the courts. We can show we care by calling
our senators and telling them to confirm
these nominees now.
Courts are going to keep showing us
how much of an impact they have on our
lives. We need to exercise every option we
have to impact who sits on them.
Ben Jealous serves as president of Peo-
ple For the American Way and Professor of
the Practice at the University of Pennsyl-
vania. A New York Times best-selling au-
thor, his next book "Never Forget Our Peo-
ple Were Always Free" will be published by
Harper Collins in January 2023.
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A protester faces police officers in downtown in Portland, Oregon
(Dave Killen/The
Oregonian via AP)
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