The Greene County Democrat

Tag: voter registration

  • Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Concerned Over Supreme Court’s Approval Of ‘Harmful Acts’

    Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Concerned Over Supreme Court’s Approval Of ‘Harmful Acts’

     by Joe Jurado, Newsone 

    If you’ve spent the last year wondering how far the Supreme Court will go in allowing President Donald Trump to run roughshod over the United States’ foundational principles, you’re not alone. In fact, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has expressed concerns about how the court’s willingness to approve “harmful acts” by the Trump administration through emergency orders is damaging trust in the institution. 

    According to the New York Times, Jackson made her comments during an annual lecture hosted by the University of the District of Columbia Law School focused on the university’s commitment to civil liberties. In her speech, Jackson added that the court “cannot expect the public to have faith in our judicial system if, without clear explanation, we are consistently greenlighting harmful acts” without a full hearing.

    Jackson told the audience that there was “a serious concern” that the Supreme Court’s handling of its emergency docket was “having an enormously disruptive and potentially corrosive effect” on the federal court system.

    The Supreme Court has become such a rubber stamp for the Trump administration that it’s genuinely surprising when it rules against them. I genuinely thought there was a significant chance the court would allow the Trump administration to disenfranchise one-third of voters by letting his executive order on mail-in voting proceed. 

    Like clockwork, the Supreme Court did the exact thing she warned against, literally only a day after she made her remarks. AP reports that the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with building a national voter registry. 

    From AP:

    The emergency order allows states, for now, to use the Trump administration’s revamped version of a Department of Homeland Security program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, in their efforts to verify the eligibility of voters on their rolls. It’s a program that has drawn scrutiny for its use of voters’ sensitive personal data and its tendency to wrongly flag some eligible voters as noncitizens.

    States’ use of the SAVE program is voluntary, limiting the ruling’s impact on the midterm elections. Existing law also blocks most states from systematically purging voters from their rolls within 90 days of an election, said David Becker, an election law expert who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research. He said DHS itself has admitted the data is not perfect.

    Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who has refused to participate in the SAVE program, said the ruling will have no effect in her state because it “does not force states to change the way we run our elections.”

    The court’s conservative majority ruled in favor of allowing states to use the SAVE tool, while the three liberal justices dissented. Their dissent focuses on the possibility that eligible voters will be unjustly removed from voter rolls because of registry errors. This has already happened in Travis County, Texas, where the SAVE tool flagged 97 voters as noncitizens. It was found that likely 21% of those people were legal citizens who were eligible to vote. 

    “The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” Jackson wrote in the dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

    If there’s any upshot in this ruling, it’s that it will have little to no effect on the upcoming midterms, since existing laws prevent most states from purging their voter rolls 90 days before an election. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Red states take advantage of the tool ahead of the 2028 election. 

    Featured Image: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (The Washington Post)

  • Big Mama Said: “When Spider Webs Unite, They Can Tie up a Lion”

    Big Mama Said: “When Spider Webs Unite, They Can Tie up a Lion”

    By Terry Allen, Texas Metro News

    TEXAS METRO NEWS — An Ethiopian proverb, “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion,” highlights how collective effort transforms individual fragility into power. This wisdom reflects the history of voting in America, especially for Black Americans, where ordinary citizens organized and demanded their rights. 

    There is a powerful Ethiopian proverb: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”

    Big Mama understood that kind of wisdom. One spider web looks fragile and insignificant. But connect enough strands, working together with purpose, and what appeared powerless becomes powerful.

    That is the story of voting in America—and especially the Black American experience.

    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not happen because powerful people suddenly decided to share power. Ordinary Americans organized, marched, registered voters, and demanded that America honor its promises.

    Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper, refused to accept that Black citizens should be denied their voices. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and was beaten while demanding voting rights. Behind them stood thousands of unnamed people who organized churches, knocked on doors, and risked their jobs, safety, and lives for the ballot.

    Their spider webs united—and changed America.

    More than sixty years later, voting remains at the center of national battles. America continues to debate congressional maps, voter registration, voter-roll maintenance, identification requirements, ballot access, and election procedures. These debates remind us that democracy cannot simply be inherited. Every generation must participate in protecting it.

    Too many eligible citizens remain disconnected or discouraged from the voting process. Others simply assume their registration is current.

    That is why my family practices something we call “Gimme 5.”

    It is simple: I commit to getting five people to vote. Those five reach five more. We confirm registrations, share election information, remind one another of voting dates, and encourage one another until the votes are actually cast.

    Then we have a party—not to celebrate a candidate or political party, but to celebrate the actual votes cast.

    Do the math: one plus five equals five. Five reach 25. Twenty-five reach 125. Imagine that multiplication happening through families, churches, fraternities, sororities, and neighborhoods.

    So here is my two-part challenge:

    First, confirm that you are registered to vote.

    Second, Gimme 5. Activate five voters and challenge each of them to activate five more.

    Our ancestors built the web. Now we must strengthen it.

    Big Mama said, “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”

    Terry Allen is an NABJ award-winning Journalist, DEI expert, PR professional,
    and Vice President at FocusPR, founder of the charity City Men Cook, and Dallas Chapter President of NBPRS.org

    Featured Image: Family Gimme 5 party (Malcolm Lloyd)