American democracy faces numerous threats including pay-to-play governance, voter suppression, a deceit-infested information universe, politicized Supreme Court, Republicans covetous of one-party rule, along with gerrymandering and a malapportioned Senate accountable for lawmaking gridloc.
The Supreme Court should be the ultimate bulwark against these dangers. But its clutch of Republican justices have tasted the one-party Kool-Aid. Exemplified by the pending Roe ruling, they are ideologues comprising the first partisan Court in American history, and responsible for the institution’s deterioration. All but Justice Thomas were appointed by presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump who lost the popular vote. These ideologues are shielding their party’s lawmakers from voter accountability by abusing the Court’s opaque shadow docket with anonymous rulings rolling back voting rights. They have also used the traditional merits docket to weaken voting rights, including Shelby, Abbott, Husted, Purcell, and Brnovich.
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