On Tuesday night, MSNBC race-baiter Joy Reid had a freak out on The ReidOut over the Supreme Court's decision not to hear a case challenging Alabama's new congressional district maps this term. As she typically does, Reid used poisonous rhetoric against her political opponents and referred to the Roberts Court as the "new Plessy court."
Reid started off the show in her typically venomous fashion claiming that "the activists on the current court are showing that precedent doesn't much matter to them. They're declaring open season on the voting rights of Americans of color."
Referring to the five conservative jurists on the court, Reid said "the five judicial right-wing horsemen of the MAGA apocalypse decided that it is fine for Alabama to gerrymander to hurt black people so long as they don't explicitly say race."
She then falsely claimed that Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a "credibly accused sexual assaulter" despite multiple investigations proving otherwise. Next up, was former US District Attorney Joyce Vance, who gave her take on the Supreme Court's decision. She implored the Justice Department to get involved and have Alabama redraw its maps while also stating her belief that "it's time to restore the Voting Rights Act."
Reid, in response, dismissed the possibility that Congress would ever vote to restore the Voting Rights Act under its current makeup because of "the Eastman and Thurmond wing of the Democratic Party Manchin and Sinema."
She then turned to The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal for his take on the Supreme Court and Alabama, and it was just as deranged as you can imagine (click expand):
This is no longer like Jim Crow. This is Jim Crow. This is what the court did back during the Jim Crow era. My mother is 70 years old. She was born in 1950 -- more than 70 years old. Born in 1950 in Mississippi. She has lived through this. And it's happening again. And I can't seem to get people including Democrats to care. Because at the end of the day, all the court has to do, all the Supreme Court has to do is refuse to enforce the 15th Amendment and apply it against the states. We've had laws before. We had the Civil Rights Act of 1870 which made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race and voting.
Did it matter? No. Not when conservatives control the court. We had a law, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that made it illegal to discriminate against people in public accommodations. Did it matter? No. Not when you let conservatives control the Supreme Court. So as long as you let conservatives control the third branch of government, nothing stops. Nothing happens. Only the racism is allowed to continue.
Mystal then turned his rage at Reid and his fellow leftists for wanting to give Chief Justice John Roberts credit for siding with the three liberal judges in the case: "[I] don't give any credit to your boy John Roberts because while he sided with the liberals on the procedural issue. He made it pretty clear that when it comes up on the merits, he’s also going to allow the racist Alabama maps to go through."
Continuing to lose his mind, Mystal wailed: "Black people can't help you. Black people can't save this country from the Trumpers if you don't let us. And the only way you can let us is by stopping conservative control of the Supreme Court."
I just hope Mystal never sees the new gerrymandered maps created by Democrats in New York or Illinois, because if Alabama's map is Jim Crow, I would hate to hear what those maps are.
This vile and deranged segment was made possible by Vicks, Farmers Insurance, and Chase. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the biased news they fund.
To read the relevant transcript of this segment click "expand":
MSNBC’s The ReidOut
2/8/2022
7:02:34 PMJOY REID: Now the activists on the current court are showing that precedent doesn't much matter to them. They're declaring open season on the voting rights of Americans of color, escalating the war on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in a bid, it seems, to become the new Plessy court. In a 5-4 ruling, the court cleared the way for Alabama to use a new congressional district map, halting a lower court decision that it violated the Voting Rights Act by denying black voters a new district. The five judicial right-wing horsemen of the MAGA apocalypse decided that it is fine for Alabama to gerrymander to hurt black people so long as they don't explicitly say race. Associate Justice and credibly accused sexual assaulter Brett Kavanaugh beer pong screamed in his opinion it is too close to an election, taking a page from his spiritual father, Mitch McConnell. He also tried out the excuse that the case was not decided on the merits. Oral arguments will be held later, but not before the midterm elections, conveniently for Alabama Republicans. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan was having none of that, writing that Alabama is not entitled to keep violating black Alabamians voting rights just because the court’s order came down in the first month of an election year.
She argued that granting the stay does a disservice to the lower court's application of precedent and most of all does a disservice to black Alabamians who under that precedent have had their electoral power diminished in violation of a law this court once knew to buttress all of American democracy. Now if you need any indication of just how radical this decision is, Chief Justice John Roberts, whose legal career has been devoted to dismantling the Voting Rights Act, finally just gutting it outright in 2013's Shelby decision, he sided with the liberals, accusing his fellow partisans on the court of going too far. In the meantime, litigation will continue. The Plaintiff Evan Milligan said in a statement “we are reminded of the strength and dignity displayed by our ancestors who routinely confronted a wide variety of disappointments. We won't dishonor their legacy by putting down the torch they have handed to us."
(...)
JOYCE VANCE: DOJ is committed, and they followed through on the commitment to doing the best that they can do with the laws that remain in place. But as Elie and I have discussed with you many times before, Joy, the Voting Rights Act has been gutted in many regards, Section 5 gutted in Shelby County vs Holder, Section 2 gutted in Bernavich last term. So DOJ can bring claims, but it has limited ability to maneuver. And Chris England, the head of the Alabama Democratic Party tweeted something last night that I think hits the nail right on the head. He said it's time for the Senate to pass a new voting rights act. We need to have the legal tools in place, the law that was passed by bipartisan majorities over and over. And suddenly fell out of favor with Republicans. It's time to restore the Voting Rights Act.
REID: Well good luck with that. With the Eastman and Thurmond wing of the Democratic Party Manchin and Sinema weighing in, they're gonna be like nope, can't do that. Our donors didn't say we could. So. No! Elie, I'm going to let you weigh in here. I feel like this is the new Plessy Court. They've made it very clear that the stare decisis thing, are just words to them, they don't really care about precedent, they're gonna stomp all over precedent because they have a political agenda. And it is the same political agenda of Donald Trump and right-wingers, and they're just gonna do it. They don't really care.
ELIE MYSTAL: Yeah, Joy I don't know what to tell people. This is no longer like Jim Crow. This is Jim Crow. This is what the court did back during the Jim Crow era. My mother is 70 years old. She was born in 1950 -- more than 70 years old. Born in 1950 in Mississippi. She has lived through this. And it's happening again. And I can't seem to get people including Democrats to care. Because at the end of the day, all the court has to do, all the Supreme Court has to do is refuse to enforce the 15th Amendment and apply it against the states. We've had laws before. We had the Civil Rights Act of 1870 which made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race and voting. Did it matter? No. Not when conservatives control the court. We had a law, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that made it illegal to discriminate against people in public accommodations. Did it matter? No. Not when you let conservatives control the Supreme Court. So as long as you let conservatives control the third branch of government, nothing stops. Nothing happens. Only the racism is allowed to continue. That's what Brett Kavanaugh did. That's what Neil Gorsuch did and the other rest of the five of them. And don't give any credit to your boy John Roberts.
REID: Nope.
MYSTAL: Because while he sided with the liberals on the procedural issue. He made it pretty clear that when it comes up on the merits, he’s also going to allow the racist Alabama maps to go through. I can't help you if you don't -- black people can't help you. Black people can't save this country from the Trumpers if you don't let us. And the only way you can let us is by stopping conservative control of the Supreme Court.
