MS NOW legal analyst Paul Butler argued the U.S. Supreme Court clearly does not “respect” the rights of Black and Brown voters after ruling that race-based gerrymandering violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Butler ripped the 6-3 ruling during an interview on MS NOW’s The Weekend: Primetime on Saturday night.

“In some ways, this is one of the worst Supreme Court decisions on race ever,” Butler said. “It’s actually worse than Plessy versus Ferguson. Plessy actually required formal equality, separate but equal. With this case, Black and Brown votes don’t have the same power as White votes.”

His comment stunned co-host Ayman Mohyeldin, who let out a “wow” as Butler made his case.

“It’s like the Dred Scott decision, where the court said that the Black man has no rights that the white man is bound to respect,” Butler continued. “The Supreme Court is saying that the Black voter and the Brown voter has no rights that it respects.”

And a minute later in the discussion, Butler was asked what the next step was for Democrats to counter the decision.

“So you ask, where do we go from here? A lot of Black people are just leaning on our history saying, we got through enslavement, we got through Jim Crow, somehow we’ll get through this.”

Butler shared his take a few days after the landmark 6-3 ruling voided Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district, with the court’s conservative-leaning justices finding it relied too heavily on race.

Chief Justice John Roberts said the Louisiana district was a “snake” created along racial lines. Justice Samuel Alito agreed, writing the map was an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”

“Allowing race to play any part in government decisionmaking represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” Alito wrote.

Alito added the goals of the 1965 Voting Rights Act had been distorted by those looking to shape districts along racial lines, hoping to gain more seats in Congress. Section II of the law he said was  “limited to instances of intentional discrimination,” which he said is a “very high standard” to prove.

Butler — who teaches law at Georgetown University — was not the only pundit on the panel who was upset about the ruling. Co-host Catherine Rampell sounded pretty dejected by it while sitting across from Butler, asking out loud if the “remedy” for Democrats would be “packing the court.”

And CNN star Abby Phillip on Saturday worried the ruling could“eradicate” political representation for Black Americans and other minority groups in the South.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, celebrated the decision on Wednesday.

“That’s good!” a giddy Trump said when a reporter told him about it. “That’s the kind of ruling I like.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

The post MS NOW Legal Analyst Claims Black Voters Have ‘No Rights’ That the Supreme Court ‘Respects’ first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/YO86qIb