NEW STUDY FINDS MORE THAN 8 IN 10 SUPREME COURT CASES COULD MOVE LAW IN ANTI-DEMOCRATIC DIRECTION

(November 13, 2023) – Take Back the Court released a new study showing that since 2012, more than 8 in 10 (81.25%) election-related cases had the potential to move the law in an anti-democratic direction, while just 18.75% had the potential to advance democracy relative to the status quo.

“Contrary to what many columnists and opinion writers rushed to suggest this summer in the wake of the Allen and Moore decisions, the Supreme Court is as much a threat to democracy now as ever,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Back the Court. “What people seem to forget is that the justices choose their own docket — and they have spent the past decade repeatedly stacking it with cases that only have the potential to move the law in an anti-democratic direction. When you choose all the cases you hear, and you consistently craft a docket with overwhelming potential to make elections less fair, it’s easy to pretend you’re ‘advancing’ democracy when you’re really just choosing not to raze it every now and then.”

The study looked at cases on the docket since October 2012, the term when the court heard Shelby County v. Holder, and examined cases that addressed issues of ballot access, redistricting, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, campaign finance, and the Electoral College.

The full study is available on Take Back the Court’s website. TBTC President Sarah Lipton-Lubet also contextualized the study’s findings in Slate (read the piece here).

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