What A Day - Voting Rights Act Under Threat (Again)

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

A federal appeals court on Monday issued a ruling that jeopardizes the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that private groups or individuals can’t sue under a key provision of the VRA. We’re joined by Jay Willis, Editor-in-Chief of Balls and Strikes, to discuss what comes next.Over in Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could toss Republican-drawn legislative maps. The lawsuit was filed by 19 Democratic voters in Wisconsin who argue that the maps are proof of gerrymandering because they ensure the GOP has an unfair advantage in State Assembly and Senate races.And in headlines: Microsoft hired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to lead an A.I. research team, far-right populist Javier Milei was elected to be Argentina’s next president, and autoworkers ratified their contract with Detroit carmakers.Show notes:WAD will be taking a break to celebrate Thanksgiving, and will be back with a new episode on Monday, November 27th.Balls and Strikes – https://ballsandstrikes.org/NASA’s “Message In A Bottle” – https://europa.nasa.gov/message-in-a-bottle/sign-on/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Tuesday, November 21st. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And I'm Traevel Anderson. And this is What A Day, the pod that wishes President Biden a happy birthday. A belated happy birthday. It was yesterday. So hopefully he doesn't hold a grudge because, as we know, Scorpios never hold grudges. Listen, he better not hold a grudge. He lucky he's getting a happy birthday wish from us. That's true. That's true. You hear that, President Biden? He almost didn't wish you a happy birthday. On today's show, the drama at OpenAI continues with hundreds of workers threatening to leave, plus auto workers ratified their contract with Detroit car makers. But first, an opinion out of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday is jeopardizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That's the only primary federal law protecting voting rights from

state legislatures who pass racially discriminatory voting laws. Not that important or anything. No big deal. I mean, and of course, this ruling isn't racist at all. There's no problems. No problems at all. For real, though, this is honestly pretty wild. The way that most Voting Rights Act enforcement works is that a private citizen or like a group of voters will sue in court saying that a state violated the Voting Rights Act, right? But this 8th Circuit three-judge panel, which consisted of one Trump appointee and two George W. Bush appointees, ruled two to one that there actually is no private right of action, that only the DOJ can enforce the VRA. This is not true or how things have worked. The statute has been around for 60 years and there's always been a private right of enforcement, but this panel has ruled, nope, we're changing the rules. That's not how it works. Okay, so this opinion is saying that private bodies cannot enforce the Voting Rights Act. But what does that actually mean now?

What will happen to the Voting Rights Act going forward? Well, that's the big question. So I called up our good friend of the pod, Jay Willis. He's the editor-in-chief of Balls and Strikes, an outlet that publishes critical and progressive commentary on the legal system, where I'm also a contributing editor, I started out by asking him what's at stake here if this ruling stands. Even under a democratic administration, the Department of Justice just doesn't have the time or the resources to enforce the Voting Rights Act everywhere it needs to be enforced. It's like playing whack-a-mole against Republican racists in

various states. You're not going to be able to get there. And the flip side of that, under a Republican presidency, the attorney general is not going to be enforcing the Voting Rights Act at all. They're going to be, I don't know, something about Hunter Biden's laptop. It's honestly never really been clear to me. Or they're going to be enforcing it in the worst possible way. It seems like it could also just be really manipulated. Is that right? A Republican attorney general manipulating the law to suit their party's own ends? It's crazy. Crazy. Okay, so we could see this case taken up at the Supreme Court if it's appealed, which it will be. So what is your prediction for how the justices would weigh in here? And what happens if they do agree with this ruling from today? Off the top of my head,

I don't know that the Supreme Court allows this like one eighth circuit weirdo to rewrite 60 years worth of Voting Rights Act precedent. But I've seen the Supreme Court do weirder stuff over the past couple of years. Yeah. Whatever the result of this particular case, this is the product of a judiciary dominated by Trump judges. It's just a big sort of anti-democracy echo chamber. I'm reminded a little bit of sort of the discourse over the Rahimi case before the Supreme Court now, where the Supreme Court issued this unhinged Second Amendment decision in Bruin, and suddenly it's having to sort of frantically backtrack as the result of the application of its test results in domestic abusers having unfettered access to firearms.

Sort of the same thing here. Over the past couple of years, there's been two cases in which Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch Both sort of put little flags in Voting Rights Act cases where they said, you know, we've never actually decided whether Section 2 has a private right of action. And that's going to happen sometimes which is conservatives are going to see a lane a permission structure for them to rewrite the law as they would like it to be and they are going to take it that was my conversation with jay willis and an aclu attorney told politico that she believes that the supreme court will likely take up the case. So given our current Supreme Court, that doesn't give me a lot of hope, but we will see.

You can check out more of Jay's work on balls and strikes, which we'll have linked in our show notes below. Thanks for that, Josie. Now on to another voting rights-related story, this one coming out of Wisconsin, or Wisconsin if your name is T-Pain. Today, their state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a redistricting case that could upend the status quo of political power in the state, seemingly in a good way for progressive-minded folks. This is one of those types of cases we've mentioned on the show before, where Republicans have drawn voting maps in a way to ensure they maintain or gain power. In Wisconsin, those maps basically have districts that are shaped oddly or otherwise don't make any sense unless someone is purposefully trying to finagle their way through voter disenfranchisement. The shape of the districts are so odd that they've been compared to Swiss cheese. One Democratic lawmaker even said they, quote, look like a two-year-old drew them.

Yeah, as a parent of a two-year-old, I have to say that's a terrible endorsement. You never want your map to look like a two-year-old drew it. Tell us a little bit more about this lawsuit, like who filed it, what's at stake, etc. Yeah, so the lawsuit was filed by 19 Democratic voters in Wisconsin who are basically saying that these maps are proof of gerrymandering because they ensure the GOP has an unfair advantage in state assembly and Senate races. Something important to know, it was this same court, which used to have a conservative majority back in 2022 that approved these maps in the first place. But now, with the swearing in of Justice Janet Protasewicz in August of this year, the state Supreme Court

has a liberal majority for the first time since 2008. And Protasewicz, by the way, was critical of these maps during her campaign, so we kind of know where she at least might be leaning. That said, the court has decided not to deal with the gerrymandering question directly. Instead, they'll be focused on answering two questions specifically. The first question is whether or not the current maps violate the contiguity requirement of the state's constitution. Democrats are saying, for example, that Republicans shouldn't be able to carve out these islands or pockets of a district that are completely surrounded by another district. They've identified that 55 of the state's 99 assembly districts and 21 of the state's 33

senate districts contain these, quote, disconnected pieces of territory. And so they're saying that the contiguity requirement requires that every part of a district must be touching. And then the second question the court is focusing on is about whether the 2022 decision to enact these Republican-drawn maps violates the state constitution's separation of powers clause, especially since they adopted it despite a veto by the state's democratic governor. And I bet you that the Republicans are thrilled about this. Would that be right? Of course they're not. Of course they're not.

Oh boy. In addition to the conservative justices on the court vocalizing their disdain, one of them actually said, quote, redistricting should not be an annual event. You also have Republican legislators calling for Protasewicz's impeachment because she won't recuse herself. They say that she's biased because of those campaign comments I mentioned earlier. And all of this is particularly important because Republicans have a two-thirds majority in the state Senate, and they are only two votes away from that same threshold in the state assembly.

If they were to get those two votes, they'd have the power to override the Democrat governor's veto and further wreak havoc on Wisconsin residents. We will be sure to keep an eye out on how the court decides, but that is the latest for now. We'll be back to keep an eye out on how the court decides, but that is the latest for now. We'll be back after some advertisements. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. Starting in Silicon Valley, where a weekend of drama led to big changes and an uncertain future at OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. We told you yesterday that the co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, was ousted as CEO last

Friday. Well, late Sunday night, the company's board of directors said it stood by its decision and would not reinstate Altman. Then Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, announced it hired Altman and OpenAI's former president, Greg Brockman, to lead an AI research team at Microsoft. And on Monday, more than 700 of OpenAI's 770 staff members signed on to an open letter to call for the resignation of the board of directors and for Altman's return. And they threatened to leave the company and join the others at Microsoft unless their demands were met.

You don't really want 700 of your 770 staff members starting to leave. Those numbers aren't good. In the meantime, Emmett Shearer, the newest CEO, said in a post on X that he plans to hire an investigator to, quote, dig into the entire process leading up to this point. And that is what we know so far, but we will keep you updated as more details become available. Over in Argentina, far-right populist Javier Mile was elected to be the country's next president. Mile is a libertarian economist and a self-described anarcho-capitalist who also happens to be an admirer of Donald Trump. He won nearly 56% of the vote with almost all ballots counted and beat Sergio Massa, the country's center-left economy minister. Some background on Argentina's next president, Mile is a former television personality

who said he would slash government spending, close the nation's central bank, and replace the peso with the U.S. dollar. During campaign rallies, Milley sometimes carried an actual chainsaw, which was meant to symbolize deep spending cuts. For context, Argentina is currently struggling with its worst economic crisis in years, with inflation soaring above 140 percent. And some political analysts who spoke with the New York Times said Mille's rise shines a light on many Argentines' need for change. And next for the country, Javier Mille will officially be sworn in as president on December 10th.

Shakira has long claimed her tax returns don't lie, but she decided to settle in the fraud case against her anyway. The international pop star struck a last-minute agreement with Spanish prosecutors yesterday on the opening day of her trial in The international pop star struck a last-minute agreement with Spanish prosecutors yesterday on the opening day of her trial in Barcelona. She was accused of six counts of tax fraud for failing to pay 14.5 million euros in income taxes between 2012 and 2014. In court on Monday, Shakira told the presiding magistrate

that she accepted a deal with prosecutors, bringing the trial to an end after just eight minutes. Under the agreement, Shakira will get a three-year suspended sentence and be fined more than 7 million euros. She'll also have to pay for the unpaid taxes and interest. Prosecutors initially sought an eight-year prison sentence along with a fine of 24 million euros. Shakira said in a statement, quote, while I was determined to defend my innocence in a trial that my lawyers were confident would

have ruled in my favor, I have made the decision to finally resolve this matter with the best interest of my kids at heart. But Shakira's legal woes are not over yet. Back in September, prosecutors charged her in a separate investigation with alleged evasion of taxes on her 2018 income. Oh, girl. Somebody lying. Something's not right, Josie.

Spain would never see me again, I'll tell you that. Hot labor. Summer has turned to pumpkin spice labor fall. The United Auto Workers confirmed yesterday that 146,000 of its members ratified four and a half year agreements with the big three U.S. automakers, Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors. That victory came about because of the union's over six-week strike that ended on October 30th. Some of the gains for UAW members include 27% general wage increases over the agreement's life and the return of benefits like cost of living adjustments that were lost during the Great Recession. In a statement, UAW President Sean Fain said in part, quote, after years of cutbacks, months of our

stand-up campaign, and weeks on the picket line, we have turned the tide for the American autoworker. Want to send your name to the stars? NASA has upped the vanity license plate to space age proportions, ironically by making it microscopic. Right now until the end of the year, you can submit your name to join at least 700,000 others that will be etched onto microchips and launch into space as part of the agency's unmanned mission to Jupiter's Europa moon. The October 2024 mission hopes to determine whether Europa has that certain je ne sais quoi needed to support life, including reliable energy sources and liquid water. The microchips will join an engraved plate featuring a poem by U.S. poet laureate Ada Limon called In Praise of Mystery, a poem for Europa. And for those of you thinking of submitting your favorite Bart Simpson-esque fake name, know that NASA does

approve or not each submission. Maybe try a Seymour Butts on a mission to Uranus instead. NASA has dubbed the Europa initiative message in a bottle, probably because the Clipper won't arrive at Jupiter until 2030. So we've all got a while to wait. My opinion is, do not give the aliens your name. Don't do it. Unless you are already not of this world and you want them to know exactly where to come find you when they're ready to rescue you. This is a fair point. This is a fair point.

You know what I mean? Also, by 2030, things here might be even worse. And so... Listen, we all might want to get the hell up out of here. You might want those aliens to come get you. You might want to roll those dice. And those are the headlines. Two more things before we go.

First, here at Crooked, we love Karayuma and their comfortable, cool, sustainably made sneakers. We love them so much that Crooked released our second collaboration with them, a Love It or Leave It sneaker. They come in pink and black and have really fun L.A.-inspired designs. Now is the perfect time to step up your shoe game with super comfortable sneakers crafted with consciously sourced materials. Plus, Cariuma plants two trees in the Brazilian rainforest for each pair purchased. Head to crooked.com slash store to grab a pair.

And secondly, we're going to be off the rest of the week to bake all the things, eat all the things, and hug all the family. At least the family we actually like. I like all my family, for any family listening. We'll be back with a new episode next Monday. That is all for

today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give the VRA some TLC, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just microscopic signatures like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter, so check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com'm josie defy rice i'm treyville anderson and happy thanksgiving i can't wait to devour some you know smothered turkey wings yeah

that's what'll be on my stove what are you eating josie i'm eating all the potato dishes that can be potatoed. Well, today is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producers, Itsy Quintanilla, Raven Yamamoto, and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers, with help today from Saul Rubin. And our showrunner is Leo Duran. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.