‘It debases the democratic process’: Sotomayor slams Supreme Court’s Alabama ruling

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the court’s conservative majority Tuesday for a ruling that “debases the democratic process” by allowing Alabama to use a congressional map that the justices had previously found intentionally discriminated against Black voters.

In a 6-3 ruling across ideological lines, the court granted an emergency request filed by Alabama Republicans seeking to implement a never-used map that eliminates one of the state’s two Black-majority districts.

In a fiery dissent opinion that was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor said the court’s Republican-appointed majority was “wrong twice over” and accused it of deliberately “sowing chaos in Alabama” and reinforcing racial discrimination.

Sotomayor opened her dissent by saying the court had two paths before it. Down one, she wrote, was “an orderly election, held under a tried-and-tested congressional map that protects Black Alabamians’ right to vote and with which all voters, elections officials, and candidates alike are familiar.”

Down the second path was “a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians,” she said. 

“The majority chooses the second path and disregards both democratic values and the rule of law. I respectfully dissent.”

In addition to being wrong on the merits, the court’s decision “inflicts two grave harms on the public,” Sotomayor wrote.

“It debases the democratic process by upending Alabama’s entire election in the name of permitting Alabama to discriminate against Black Alabamians,” she wrote. “It also corrodes the rule of law by rewarding Alabama’s gamesmanship and outright defiance of court orders.”

Sotomayor also noted that the ruling “tramples on” the court’s Purcell principle, which has held that courts should not change voting or election rules too close to an election to avoid confusion for voters and election officials.

“The Court’s decision will cause havoc,” Sotomayor wrote. She added that county elections officials will have to reassign hundreds of thousands of voters across Alabama to new congressional districts, a process the state previously said “would take months.”

In total, as many as 600,000 voters, or roughly 15% of the state’s registered voters, could be affected by the court’s ruling.

“Now the Court is squarely faced with a record of the turmoil it has caused and the harm it has wrought. Yet just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the Court today doubles down on chaos,” Sotomayor wrote.

“Because I choose to defend the rule of law and the right of all Alabamians to participate equally in democracy, I respectfully dissent,” she concluded.