US Supreme Court deals FINAL crushing blow

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Some major news out of the US Supreme Court. So, there was one last avenue that Democrats could employ to get the Supreme Court to halt the ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court blocking the referendum redrawing the map from going into effect. The argument was that the Supreme Court could issue an emergency stay to allow the new map to go into effect immediately while court proceedings continue to avoid irreparable harm. And this is from the filing. Quote, "The irreparable harm resulting from the Supreme Court of Virginia's decision is profound and immediate," the court filing reads. By forcing the Commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different from those adopted by the General Assembly pursuant to a constitutional amendment, the people just ratified, the Supreme Court of Virginia has deprived voters, candidates, and the Commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts. And now we've got new news from the US Supreme Court.

[00:00:41]They have rejected the Democrats effort to issue a stay in the Virginia Supreme Court's ruling, which means the left has officially exhausted all legal avenues.

[00:00:48]So the decision not to allow the new maps will stand, at least for this cycle. I don't have any doubt that it'll be sorted for 2028, but for this cycle, it means Democrats have to compete with the existing maps. Now, I should note that Republicans currently occupy two congressional seats that Abigail Spanberger won in 2025 and a third seat that she just barely lost. So, if Democrats overperform this cycle, which obviously they're expected to do, I do think that there's a world where Democrats flip three seats in Virginia anyway, even without the new maps in place. And I actually spoke about this uh Scotas ruling even before it came down and basically predicted this would happen. This is from two weeks ago on CNN. Do >> you think the United States Supreme Court, which has supported Texas's right to do this and has supported California's right to do this, will support Virginia's right to do redistricting? You think they might overturn this?

[00:01:32]>> No, I think that this Supreme Court has proven itself to be an arm of the Republican party if nothing else. And we have seen numerous instances where whether it's this US Supreme Court uh where you had a bunch of justices uh beat their chest about uh the importance of precedent and the voting rights act which is you know that that precedent has been reaffirmed over and over and over again for the last 60 years just like row was president that was reaffirmed over and over again. The Supreme Court stands for its its own uh uh adherence to the Republican and in fact the Supreme Court's hackery has been put on full display. I don't think anything makes me more irate than the fact that the Supreme Court told Alabama voters that even though they were using illegally jerrymandered maps in 2022, four months was far too close to an election to make any changes. And then the Supreme Court told Texas voters that even though they were using illegally jerrymandered maps in 2025, 4 months was again far too close to to an election to make any changes. But this year in 2026, when they struck down the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana, even though a 100,000 people had already voted in an ongoing election, not even four months away, but ongoing, the Supreme Court not only allowed the map to be struck down, but expedited their own process to make it happen. There is no consistency other than their blind allegiance to Republicans. That's it. So, look, I know that when it comes to the Supreme Court, it's all but impossible to feel hopeless because of how stacked the deck is against the left, but I actually think that this is useful. The hypocrisy is so obvious that I think it's a good motivator. A good motivator for Democratic officials in states that they control, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Colorado, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, to redraw their maps recognizing that they are contending with an opponent that is power- hungry and shameless and a good motivator for Americans more broadly who can see that shamelessness written on the wall. For as apathetic as Americans generally are when it comes to elections, one consistent theme is that they show up when the other side tries to blatantly rig the rules of the game in their favor. me now is Democratic member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Justin Jones. Justin, um can I have your reaction first and foremost to this latest move by uh by Republicans in your state to eliminate what was left of the congressional districts that favor Democrats?

[00:03:35]>> You know, Ryan, when I walked in the capital last Thursday, it was 2026, and when I walked off the House floor, it was pre-1965. What we are seeing is the largest coordinated assault on uh black political power in the south since the end of reconstruction. Um you know, it was done with surgical precision. Donald Trump called the governor and demanded that we have a special session. A couple days later, we were back here in the general assembly for session. Um had less than 24 hours to look at a map and was voted on the next morning on the House floor. And so this has been rushed through um all in service to the white supremacist agenda um of Donald Trump and and his allies who are so intent on keeping in control of black and brown communities at any cost um even when um they know that their policies are unpopular and that they're not going to win this election cycle fairly.

[00:04:16]you know, the these people obviously are familiar with with Tennessee and the South more broadly, their history. And so, is there is there any shame when you speak to these people recognizing that they know full well what they're doing, that this is just basically a redux of pre-1965 America? Like, is is there is there any do these people look you in the eye? I'm just trying to get a sense of of of how they feel while they're doing what it is that they're doing. I mean, these are folks who are drunk with power and and you know, one thing that came out yesterday that I just think shows how blatant it is is that we were under the impression that every Democrat was being stripped of their committee. The speaker of the house stripped everyone except the white men in our caucus. And so, um, every black member, every woman was stripped of committee, but the white men in the Democratic caucus got to keep their committee, we found out last night. And so, it just shows, um, who, you know, is dehumanized in spaces like this. These are folks who um were laughing as they were passing these racist maps, laughing at the people who were coming, expressing their grief, their frustration at the process and the and the taking away of their representation. Um and and these are folks who, you know, traffic and the politics of racism. You know, one of the members who voted for this is is represent Paul Shur who just a couple years ago joked about bringing back hanging by a tree. You know, these are folks who use racial slurs. I've been called boy multiple times as a colleague in this building. you know, they they they think that we um are back in the 1960s and and they were very clear about that. And now this policy agenda is bringing us backwards to that time in which we don't have equal representation um in our democratic process in which you know we may not even have black lawmakers at the federal level ever again um as long as these type of racist Supreme Court decisions stand um in the South because we're not just seeing it in Tennessee, but Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia. There is an assault uh war being waged against black folks in the South and it's it's a civil war and and we must call it for what it is. It's a Jim Crow agenda. um being led by these these white supremacists who wear suits and and and and you know have decorum but are their their actions are violence against communities of color and in and political violence in terms of taking away our voice in in our democracy.

[00:06:06]>> I I I completely agree and so recognizing the fact that these Republicans will stop at nothing that efforts to compromise with them will garner us nothing. That they had this idea where they wanted to enact their 60-year plan to overturn the Voting Rights Act and they're actually doing it right now. and and it would only be foolish to think that anything that the left does is going to like to to cooperate with them uh or compromise with them is going to stop them in any way. What should the left do to counteract what we're seeing right now? Like amid all of this, amid all of these actions, what steps need to be taken now to kind of write their ship?

[00:06:44]>> I mean, you know, this is a moment to do things out of the ordinary. You know, when I walked off the House floor, I burned a Confederate flag um outside the House chamber to draw attention to the need for urgency and moral clarity in this moment. Uh we are facing folks who are trying to bring us back into the Confederacy. You know, I felt like I was at a capital clan rally. These are not folks who are playing um by normal rules and procedure. These are folks who want control by any means necessary. And so, we need folks across this nation um states to respond in kind. uh we need to we need to treat this with the proportionate response that it requires um you know to to to remove them from their offices with with new maps you know in states that can do it in New Jersey, New York. Um but I don't want to just make this a partisan thing because I think that's what these Republicans are trying to do. What we're seeing is is racial gerrymandering in the South because they're saying well this is just partisan tit for tat. We're doing it because you did it. But no, what they're doing in the south is racial jerrymandering. Memphis, Tennessee. Um, a 51% black community has now been jerrymanded where they're connected to a district 300 miles away, diluting the black vote, diluting their representation. In my community here, Nashville, you drive 30 minutes from one crispy cream in Nashville to one on the outskirts of Nashville, just 30 minutes.

[00:07:44]You pass through five congressional districts. That's how insane these maps are just to visualize it. And so, these are racial jerrymanders. This is racial backlash. You have folks who are now saying that we want to go after the 14th Amendment. You have folks who um are saying that, you know, this is what they've been waiting for to dismantle the Voting Rights Act since 1965 because they thought it was racist against white people. I mean, this is the absurdity that we're hearing here. Um, and just to be clear, when they created the map in Tennessee, the speaker of the house said there's no there's no race involved. We just use um census data. And so, it's it's partisan. But Brian, if you know census data, census does not say what party you are, but it does say what race you are. These were racially drawn maps done by racist um you know, folks who have surgical precision to silence and and carve out the voices of black and brown communities in the south. I was on NewsNation about a week or two ago and I was debating with the host Katie Pavlich and her talking point on this when I brought up the fact that uh that that Tennessee has been gerrymandered within an inch of its life and that there there the the voting power um for black and brown communities in Nashville, in Memphis has been completely cracked into multiple districts, completely diluted.

[00:08:42]Um was that the South has been desegregated as a result of this Voting Rights Act decision? And so what would your response be um to these Republicans and right-wingers who suggest that that this Supreme Court decision was actually desegregation and not segregation?

[00:08:55]>> I mean it's absurd. It's absurd in a moment. In my state in Tennessee, one in five black Tennessans cannot vote because of felony disenfranchisement. In my state, we are seeing a resegregation of our schools because we're defunding our public education system to give white wealthy kids vouchers, coupons to go to private school. I mean, we are seeing a resegregation of our of, you know, this this this resurgence of the southern aristocracy. Um, all um in service to an agenda that is fearful that America is becoming more diverse and multi-racial. Um, you know, what this what this decision did, Brian, was create all nine districts in Tennessee are now majority white. Even though black people are over 20% of the population and black and brown people together are over 25% of the population, every one of Tennessee's nine congressional districts are now majority white. They've created majority white um districts in our state like we've seen back before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, diluting minority voting power, diluting our voice in the political process. And it was done intentionally. Um and and and what what the consequence is going to be is that we've seen this in Nashville. We have congressmen who live over, you know, an hour or two hours away, have no offices here, and so our constituents don't have services. They don't have support at the federal level.

[00:09:49]They're calling our state offices trying to get support because they cannot reach anybody um at the federal level because they don't even see us as worthy of being, you know, responded to. And so we are we are treated like we're a colony essentially um without you know having a voice in our democratic process. Um and it's and it's being done again across the south to bring us back to times we don't want to go to. That's you know when they say they want to take this nation back. They're literally taking us back to pre-1965 and they're not going to stop there. And that's what the message to the nation is that you know if we don't fight this in the south we you know they're going to wage they're waging a battle against multi-racial democracy all across this nation. And so we are the canary in the coal mine.

[00:10:19]>> When you said that you burned a confederate flag what was the reaction?

[00:10:22]Uh, did you encounter any any anyone else from the state legislature?

[00:10:26]>> I mean, I know that some of my colleagues are calling on for me to be arrested. You know, they they've said that it's arson even though it was a pe, you know, it was a flag that was burned and nothing else. Um, you know, to me, it's very telling that these racists who I work with who call themselves representatives are more offended by the burning of a Confederate flag than they are about the burning down of our democracy. I think that that shows us where their loyalties are and where their um concern is. You know, these people are literally creating are arsonists for democracy. They're burning the democratic process, burning through um all the protections that we have and and spitting on the graves of our martyrs. People like Vio Luo and um Jimmy Lee Jackson, um Megar Evers, who literally were murdered and m and killed, you know, fighting for things like the Voting Rights Act, the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement. And so this is who these folks are and they're unapologetic. Their masks are off or better yet, I should say, their white sheet, the white hoods are off, and they're showing us exactly who they are. You had mentioned before that Democrats need to respond in kind. What would your message be to those states that have had the opportunity to move and yet haven't yet? And then more broadly, just your message to to state legislators and governors across the country where right now Democrats do have the majority. May perhaps not the ability to redraw maps for 2026, but as we move toward 2028, where frankly we haven't seen much movement. I mean, yes, we got a map redraw in California to neutralize what happened in Texas. Uh kudos to the folks in in Virginia and uh and and shame on the Virginia Supreme Court. But we have other weapons right now that could be wielded. New Jersey, New York, Maryland, uh where Bill Ferguson is blocking the effort, Illinois, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and other than those two states that I mentioned at at the top, we haven't seen any movement. at the same time that we're seeing movement from the Republicans in Florida, in Texas, in Alabama, Louisiana, uh uh North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Ohio, and so there is a pretty big asymmetry here in how the two different parties are wielding power in this case. You know, we still have Democrats who acting like this is early 2000s politics. You know, the that world of normaly of our politics is is gone. You know, we are in the midst of we have to say this is a war. is a war for the future of our democracy and the south is a front line in that battle. And so, you know, to I would say to the governors and to the lawmakers in those states that this is a moment to put our morals above our manners. You know, what is moral is to act um not just for us but for generations who are counting on us what we do in this moment. I think we're going to be judged not by what we do but by what we don't do. And so, I would air on the side of action, air on the side of doing something because come a couple years and our democracy has crumbled and we're back in a resegregated America, um people are going to be looking at who did not act. And so I would encourage the states of New York, of Illinois, of of Washington, of Oregon to take action.

[00:12:53]Um, and and and if you need us to come from the south and tell you what the stakes are, I'm happy to do that. I was just in Sacramento this week and I came from the south to Sacramento to lift up what's going on here because people, I think they they they don't understand the stakes of what we're fighting right now. Um, and and the ancestral trauma that's coming up as we're as we're dismantling black voting power um, and how it's going to spread across this nation like a cancer. And so I I think that we need, you know, our democracy requires a disruption. Sometimes we need folks to disrupt the normaly, the business as usual, to do something bold and to do something, you know, that that is proportionate to the opponents we face and the battle that we face. Um because they're they're being you know they are ruthless in