In deciding to virtually ignore and thereby defy a Supreme Court ruling on redistricting in the state, Alabama’s GOP-led legislature not only proves out SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito’s prediction that the Court’s authority is in jeopardy — the Crimson Tide side is also stealing a move from the playbook of liberal New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"What Alabama did is appalling…but you know what? It's not new. We've seen this from Alabama before."@TonaBoydEsq discusses Alabama's new congressional map that violates the Voting Rights Act and SCOTUS's most recent ruling in Allen v. Milligan. https://t.co/qJv7a8sW5q pic.twitter.com/hZcXjrP6PU
— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) July 22, 2023
In early April 2023, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez floated the idea that an allegedly politicized judiciary — in this case a federal judge in Texas had suspended FDA approval of an abortion pill — had squandered its right to have its ruling obeyed.
Ocasio-Cortez said at the time: “I believe that The Biden Administration should ignore this ruling. The courts rely on the legitimacy of their rulings and what they are currently doing is engaging in an unprecedented erosion of their legitimacy.”
In a statement prescient about what happened in Alabama this month, Ocasio-Cortez added “the interesting thing about a ruling is it relies on enforcement.” The Alabama legislature, as Ocasio-Cortez suggested the Biden administration should do, appears to have ignored the ruling of the nation’s highest court.
AOC: I believe that The Biden Administration should ignore this ruling. The courts rely on the legitimacy of their rulings and what they are currently doing is engaging in an unprecedented erosion of their legitimacy pic.twitter.com/Szx9xXYBNN
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 8, 2023
The Congresswoman wrote: “The GOP are losing their mind over this, but there’s precedent – including their own. Courts ordered Trump to fully restore DACA. They ignored it w/ Republican support.”
Alito has also expressed concern (and suspicion) that the judiciary’s rulings — including the Supreme Court’s — were in danger of being ignored. Also in April, in a withering dissent on an abortion pills case, Alito wrote that he didn’t trust that the Biden administration would comply with a decision that opposed its own political leanings.
“The Government has not dispelled legitimate doubts,” Alito wrote, “that it would even obey an unfavorable order in these cases, much less that it would choose to take enforcement actions to which it has strong objections.”
That charge prompted former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance to respond that “Justice Alito’s assertion that the Biden administration would not follow a legitimate order from the Court is unwarranted & completely unbefitting a Supreme Court justice.”
Justice Alito's assertion that the Biden administration would not follow a legitimate order from the Court is unwarranted & completely unbefitting a Supreme Court justice. pic.twitter.com/QyzILH2t8j
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) April 21, 2023
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