In one short week, Texas delivered the dreaded worst-case scenario for Democrats twice, first on voting rights, and then again on abortion. The Lone Star State, which Trump won by only five points in 2020 but remains in hock to a Republican trifecta at the state level, gutted voting rights protections in a bill that took months to complete after Democratic legislators fled the state to deny a quorum. Earlier, Texas had illegalized abortion after six weeks, with vigilante enforcement. Last Wednesday, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court sanctified the abortion law by denying an emergency injunction, allowing it to take effect. They did this on the shadow docket, without even pretending to entertain deliberation.
It’s shocking, but it’s no surprise. Republicans have openly telegraphed for years, even decades, their strategy for a two-pronged approach to minority rule. When in power, they pack the Court with hard-right ideologues with lifetime appointments who will happily rule from the bench. These judges then sustain conservative policymaking when they’re out of power, and the voting laws the judges bless in particular allow some semblance of power to flow to Republicans no matter what voters’ preference. The resulting functional termination of constitutional rights to vote and choose has openly, vocally been the plan from the very beginning.
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