Supreme Court Overturns Voting Rights Act

I guess we all saw this coming.  In their usual 5 to 4 split, the Corporate Arm of the Republican Party — formerly known as the Supreme Court — has overturned part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

President Obama said he was “deeply disappointed” in today’s Supreme Court ruling:

“While today’s decision is a setback, it doesn’t represent the end of our efforts to end voting discrimination.  I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls.”

Congress???  Fat chance of that.  They’re too busy voting to repeal Obamacare for the 537th time.  For rightwing state legislatures who want to turn the clock back to 1950, it’s full speed ahead.  They’re free to crack down on voter registration drives, ban early voting, and whatever else it takes to keep the riffraff out of the voting booth.

Chief Justice John Roberts’ “reasoning” — using the term loosely — was that the racial situation has improved so much, we no longer need the Voting Rights Act.  Or something.

Traffic deaths have been decreasing every year because of stricter traffic laws and better enforcement.  These laws have served their purpose but now we don’t need them any more.

Three days ago I started a 2-week course of antibiotics.  But hey, the symptoms have disappeared, so I’ll just go ahead and throw away all the rest of these pills.

Or as dissenting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it:

“Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Rep. John Lewis (D—Georgia) said:

“These men that voted to strip the Voting Rights Act of its power, they never stood in unmovable lines, they never had to pass a so-called literacy test.  It took us almost a hundred years to get where we are today. So, will it take another hundred years to fix it, to change it?”