Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts attends inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla/Pool via REUTERS
The Supreme Court, mired in accusations of "corruption" and "bias," has dealt what one Fox News analyst writing for The Hill called the "most destructive blow against Black political power in my lifetime."
Juan Williams is a political analyst for Fox News who is regularly one of the conservative network's most vocal critics of President Donald Trump and the GOP's acquiescence to his political machinations. In a piece published on Memorial Day, he called out the Supreme Court's continued trend of ruling in ways that run afoul of legal principles in order to benefit Trump, while reserving particular scorn for its gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
"Here’s the biggest mystery in Washington," Williams wrote. "Was it a six-sided conspiracy? Or are there only one or two Supreme Court justices behind the chaos caused by the recent ruling allowing new congressional districts to be drawn even after midterm primary voting has started?"
He added: "Among Democrats, there is no mystery. There is talk of outright corruption. The only question is the extent of the corruption among Supreme Court justices. How many have abandoned judicial impartiality to help President Trump hold his Republican majority in the House?"
Williams further highlighted Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's recent comments during a meeting of the American Law Institute, where she chastised her conservative colleagues on the court for straying from their duty to be "neutral" and "nonpartisan," arguing that, instead, they are now getting "into the [political] fray," with their rulings. This was particularly true of the 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act and spurred a whirlwind of red-state gerrymandering in order to create new districts that disperse the influence of black voters.
Justice Samuel Alito, one of the most conservative members of the court with a history of antipathy towards the VRA, dismissed Jackson's claims as "groundless and utterly irresponsible," but in his piece for The Hill, Williams noted that, "it is hard to ignore the political fact that Republicans in Louisiana as well as Alabama halted primary elections to draw new maps that are more favorable to Republican congressional candidates."
"In Tennessee, the congressional map is similarly being redrawn before Election Day," Williams added. "And in South Carolina, the Republican governor asked for a special legislative session to review redistricting and possibly squeeze out the one Black-majority district. It is the only congressional district that favors Democrats. By some estimates, the wave of districting now spreading through the South, with approval of the Supreme Court, will reward Republicans with about seven to 10 more seats."
This, he noted, follows on from prior efforts by red states to use redistricting to pad the GOP's House margins, hopefully helping them to keep their thin majority in the chamber after the coming midterms. In exchange for this potential advantage politically, Williams warned that the court has created the possibility of "real racial division and pain," that could undo the vital gains of the Civil Rights Movement.
"With recent rulings, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for 21st-century white, southern politicians to silence the voices of Black voters while raising the volume of voices belonging to white voters with a history of voting for Republicans," Williams continued. "The high court’s recent ruling amounts to the most destructive blow against Black political power in my lifetime."
