As Virginia Democrats take their map fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) is flatly rejecting Democrats’ reported musings about how to undo the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision overturning a recently passed redistricting amendment.
Surovell told a local journalist and The New Republic similar things on Monday: that there isn’t enough time to redraw maps before the state’s August primary, and that forcing the Supreme Court justices into early retirement — the most ambitious part of the reported plan — is too radical.
(I’m appending an asterisk to all of this; if the might of the national Democratic Party descends on Surovell, he may cave. Should he resist, he could get Bill Fergusoned.)
The timeline argument is pretty hard to swallow, given Louisiana’s suspension of its primaries (and tossing out of 42,000 votes) and Alabama and South Carolina’s attempts to do the same.
As to the “too extreme” piece — if Democrats refuse to rig the system in the states they control, even while southern states triumphantly wipe Black representatives off the map, what are voters meant to think? That unilaterally respecting norms is more important than protecting minority voters? That leaving a conservative court in charge of a blue state is more of a priority than stripping President Trump of a trifecta for his last two years? That uprightness trumps winning?
Democrats cannot both pound the alarm about the existential threat to democracy and also refuse to use what power they have to reverse the authoritarian slide. Virginia will be a critical early data point in determining whether Democrats will have the stomach to salvage democracy should they win control in 2028.
TPM’s Kate Riga and Josh Marshall Join Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations
Supreme Court Allows Access to Abortion Pill to Continue for a Few Days
Justice Samuel Alito extended his administrative stay Monday evening on a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that would reimpose in-person dispensing requirements on mifepristone, restricting providers from sending it by mail.
Red states — including Louisiana, the plaintiff in this case — have targeted mailed mifepristone since Dobbs, when it became the primary way that women in abortion deserts were able to get care.
The new expiration date for the stay on the 5th Circuit ruling is Thursday at 5 p.m. ET.
It’s a fairly short extension, and makes me wonder whether it might be to give time for justices to write dissents. This is all going down on the shadow docket, so no one has to write at all. But if the conservatives reimpose restrictions while the case plays out, the liberals will likely have something to say about it.
AOC for President?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) got The Question at a Chicago event with Obama world’s David Axelrod: What’s your response to people who want you to run for president or Senate?
Her answer caught fire online (starts around 1:05 in this CSPAN recording):
“What’s funny about that is that they assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. And my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.
Presidents come and go. Senate, House seats, elected officials come and go. But single-payer healthcare is forever, a living wage is forever, workers’ rights are forever, women’s rights, all of that. A finer point to your question is that when you aren’t attached, right, when you haven’t been fantasizing about being this or that since the time you were seven years old, it is tremendously liberating because I get to wake up every day and say, ‘how am I gonna meet the moment?’ And conditions change radically all the time.
…The great thing about that is no billionaire can stop that. No concentrated level of power, no elite, no gatekeeper can prevent me from doing everything I can, waking up every day in service of the working class. And I can do that in the House, I can do that in the Senate, I can do it from the White House, I can do that from a shack in upstate New York chopping wood and being a burnout, I can do it from anywhere.”
In Case You Missed It
Our liveblog on the fallout from Callais continues: Democrats Huddle Over Virginia While Red States Sprint to Eliminate Black Votes
Morning Memo: What Dems Must Now Overcome to Win the House
Josh Marshall: The US-Iran War Groundhog Day
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
There’s an Obvious Reason Why The Republican Justices Sound So Nervous — Madiba K. Dennie
What We Are Reading
‘Bill Cassidy Sold His Soul to the Devil, and He Didn’t Get Anything for It’ — Gary Sernovitz, New York Times
The Democrat Making Republicans Nervous in Iowa — Julie Bosman, New York Times
‘Hondurasgate,’ the alleged US and Israeli interference plot to destabilize Mexico and other progressive governments — Andrés Rodríguez, El País
Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain — Jason Koebler, 404 Media
Republicans wouldn‘t hesitate, if the shoe was on the other foot. I mean FL’s state constitution bans partisan gerrymandering, but nobody believes that’ll slow, let alone stop, DeSantis from bulldozing minority districts.
“It’s never too early to surrender.”
— Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell
Ladies and gentlemen, the Russians have taken over Alaska and the Venezuelans have over-run Florida. We have to respect States Rights and the wishes of government social media.
I’m sure I’ll get some good old TPM flack for this, but C’mon, “rig the system”? Fight fire with fire, sure, but don’t go over the line Sweet Jesus. Regardless of what the Republicans do on their end to “rig the system”, the Democrats are in great position to win back the House. They don’t have to cheat, they just have to pound every Trump fuck up from A-Z and how Johnson et al have done nothing to stop him. I was looking at the far right wing Gateway Pundit site today, a strong MAGA base, and those folks are as pissed off as can be about gas prices and how Trump is the problem. They were not like that a month ago. Sure they won’t vote for a Democrat*, but the independents are ripe for the taking. Instead of worrying about GOP gerrymandering, the Dems should be looking at the advantages the new districts create. The GOP majorities in each are reduced, likely enough in many cases to get a Dem elected if they GOTV. The mood in the county is ugly and getting uglier. The system is already rigged for the Democrats. They just need to not screw up.
*Some MAGAs might vote for a Graham Platner-like candidate. Nominate more of these in the newly created districts.
Will the MAGA vote against the party that allowed the conman and his sons to hawk a phone with a $100. deposit that will never appear and suddenly you don’t get a refund?