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What A Day

Voting Rights Act Under Threat (Again)

What A Day

What A Day

News, Daily News

4.6 • 12.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A federal appeals court on Monday issued a ruling that jeopardizes the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that private groups or individuals can’t sue under a key provision of the VRA. We’re joined by Jay Willis, Editor-in-Chief of Balls and Strikes, to discuss what comes next.

Over in Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could toss Republican-drawn legislative maps. The lawsuit was filed by 19 Democratic voters in Wisconsin who argue that the maps are proof of gerrymandering because they ensure the GOP has an unfair advantage in State Assembly and Senate races.

And in headlines: Microsoft hired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to lead an A.I. research team, far-right populist Javier Milei was elected to be Argentina’s next president, and autoworkers ratified their contract with Detroit carmakers.

Show notes:

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Transcript

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0:00.0

It's Tuesday, November 21st. I'm Josie Duffy Rice.

0:04.0

And I'm Trayvon Anderson, and this is what a day, the pod that wishes President Biden a happy

0:10.1

birthday. A belated happy birthday. It was yesterday. So hopefully he doesn't hold a

0:15.0

grudge because as we know Scorpio's never hold grudges. Listen he

0:19.3

better not hold the grudge. He lucky he's getting a happy birthday wish from us. That's true. That's true you hear that the On today's show, the drama at Open AI continues with hundreds of workers threatening to leave,

0:36.5

plus, autoworkers ratified their contract with Detroit carmakers.

0:40.8

But first, an opinion out of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday is jeopardizing

0:44.2

the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That's the only primary federal law protecting

0:49.2

voting rights from state legislatures who passed racially discriminatory voting laws.

0:53.6

Not that important or anything, no big deal.

0:55.7

I mean, and of course this ruling isn't racist at all.

1:00.3

There's no problem here.

1:01.5

No problems at all. For real, though, this is honestly pretty wild. The way that most Voting Rights Act enforcement works is that a private citizen or like a group of voters will sue in court saying that a state violated the Voting Rights

1:16.0

Act, right? But this Eighth Circuit three-judge panel, which consisted of one Trump appointee

1:21.2

and two George W Bush appointees, ruled 2-1 that there actually is no private

1:26.2

right of action that only the DOJ can enforce the VRA.

1:31.0

This is not true or how things have worked. The statue has been around for 60 years and there's

1:37.9

always been a private right of enforcement, but this panelized world, nope, we're changing

1:42.4

the rules, that's not how it works.

1:44.4

Okay, so this opinion is saying that private bodies cannot enforce the Voting Rights Act,

1:50.6

but what does that actually mean now?

1:53.6

What will happen to the Voting Rights Act going forward?

...

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