BREAKING: Three States, Three Big Democracy Wins

Why Independent State Courts Matter So Much

The reason the far right is hell-bent on undermining independent courts in states is because in many cases, those courts remain the final check on power against highly gerrymandered legislatures.

Three decisions in recent days underscore their importance. True wins for justice and democracy.

In Missouri, the Supreme Court reversed a cynical effort to deprive voters of their opportunity to protect reproductive freedom—reversing a lower court decision that had temporarily halted a measure for which citizens had far surpassed the required number of signatures. Let’s get this Amendment passed, Missouri!

In Utah, which I wrote about on Monday, a court found that the power-hungry legislature had—in their mad rush to protect illegally gerrymandered districts—violated the notice requirements of putting forth a Constitutional amendment, and had also used misleading ballot language to summarize it.

Accordingly, the court ruled that the measure (a cynical attempt to neuter citizen-led ballot initiatives) was void:

“While the Legislature has every right to request the amendment, it has the duty and the obligation to accurately communicate the ‘subject matter’ of the proposed amendment to voters and to publish the text of the amendment to voters and to publish the text of the amendment in a newspaper in each county two months before the election…It has failed to do both.”

Boom!

And the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down that state’s voucher program for violating a state Constitutional prohibition against public education dollars being spent on private or religious schools.

The Lesson:

Folks, these are enormous decisions—in red states, no less—with huge impacts on democracy and freedom. And they happened because in each of these states, there remains some judicial independence from the otherwise highly partisan legislatures and other offices.

Which means two things:

1. There will be backlash against courts in each of these states. Eroding their independence is a core component of the right-wing “Laboratories of Autocracy” playbook. National democracy and rule of law activists must rally to their defense when these attacks happen.

2. There are critical elections on the ballot right now that could help forge similarly independent courts in otherwise red states, now and/or over time.

   • Three Justice seats are up in Ohio—if Democrats sweep, they will flip the court to join these other courts as bulwarks against Ohio's corrupt legislature on the very issues and cases taking place elsewhere: reproductive freedom, gerrymandering and public dollars being sent to religious schools. I will share more on how you can help in those races in the coming days

     • Think of.these Ohio races as extensions of ballot initiatives to protect reproductive freedom and fair districts. There’s no point in amending a state’s constitution if we at the same time allow partisan judges to undo that critical work through lawless decisions.

   • There’s a critical race in North Carolina, where the incredibly impressive Allison Riggs is running for reelection. Please help her HERE.

There’s so much on the ballot right now.

Be sure to focus on ALL the races impacting democracy.