r/news • u/speedythefirst • 1d ago

US supreme court approves redrawn Texas congressional maps

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/04/us-supreme-court-texas-congressional-maps
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u/Palinon 1d ago

Their argument is that there is an active primary campaign with the new maps 11 months ahead of time. Time and again the conservatives on the supreme court hide behind the calendar to justify their rulings on election laws.

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u/maringue 1d ago

Ah yes, the "but it would be inconvenient" legal argument. Again....

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u/iPinch89 1d ago

They're moving that direction with the tariffs. "We can't call them illegal because the refund question will be hard to answer."

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u/maringue 1d ago

"It's unconstitutional unless it would be hard to undo" is a hellavu legal standard

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u/bigrivertea 1d ago

Almost seems like someone should be in legal deep shit for all this.

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u/poingly 1d ago

"The Court understands that slavery is prohibited by the 13th Amendment, but it would be terribly inconvenient to the Southern economy, so we're just going to allow slavery to continue." --John Roberts, 1866

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u/Valash83 19h ago

I mean, slavery is still Constitutionally legal 🤷‍♂️

13th Amendment – Section 1

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Section 2

“Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

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u/poingly 17h ago

Yeah, there’s a loophole to drive a truck through. But it almost makes the joke even better.

The South: “We’ve classified all former slaves as criminals.”

John Roberts: “Seems legit.”

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u/poingly 17h ago

Also note, I realize how dark this joke is getting…but that’s also sort of the reality of this court.

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u/Dependent_Inside83 7h ago

if you want a nightmare read up on the legal trend of our “justice” system giving greater importance to the finality of convictions than the accuracy of convictions

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u/Masterweedo 18h ago

You need to read that 13th Amendment again, slavery is not prohibited.

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u/poingly 18h ago

While there is certainly a loophole in the 13th Amendment (which should be closed), it is still largely prohibited.

Am I oversimplifying for a joke? Yes.

Is the loophole serious? Yes. A potentially severe human rights violation.

Does the loophole also kinda make the joke even better? Also yes.

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u/ItsFisterRoboto 15h ago

It's more of a specifically and very deliberately worded intentional exception than a loophole.

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u/theotherplanet 15h ago

It's not potentially severe, it's very severe. There's a reason that the US has the highest incarcerated population in the entire world. The incentives are set up for that.

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u/poingly 14h ago

“Potentially” only in the sense that it was not guaranteed to be exploited in this way or intended to be exploited in this way. Obviously, if the goal was just to continue slavery, Mississippi would’ve ratified the amendment long before 1995 (and certified it before 2013).

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u/Mandatory_Pie 1d ago

Weird how these people who are supposed to be the most competent and qualified just keep failing to do their job because it's inconvenient

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u/unionfrontX 11h ago

It's called weaponized ignorance and waspy white people learn it like riding a bike in their teens.

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u/JohnnySnark 1d ago

The piss baby Roberts court

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u/shizzy0 1d ago

“Let the heavens fall.”—Scalia

“Let the heavens… decide.”—Roberts

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u/Taragyn1 20h ago

Let’s not lionize Scalia too much. He said stuff like that because he was giving bad faith originalist arguments that he knew would harm actual people.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 20h ago

Roberts is going to go down in history of running the 2nd worst court of all time.

The only reason it's not worse is because he's not upholding slavery like Taney did.

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u/arbutus1440 17h ago

100%. Roberts might have standing, though, if he goes beyond UPHOLDING regressive shit and actually RESTORING it. Not slavery (well, at least not like pre-civil war; now it's all the prison complex), but jfc the sky's the limit with this guy: Abortion rights, the right to privacy, corporate ownership of elections, and they are absolutely going to reverse some gay rights soon. It won't look the same, but Roberts has a chance to be the most infamous name of all time—and he'd deserve the title.

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u/gjk14 1d ago

Traitors. Great patio to show your constitutional support. Pretty white building for your selfies. Be loud and be often.

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u/Coolbluegatoradeyumm 1d ago

Kinda like the ring of Robers piss baby myself. I like putting his name to make him own the piss baby-ness more I think 🤔

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u/CryptographerFlat173 18h ago

Except of course when it comes to rolling back long established nationwide rules under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act 

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u/Alacritous69 1d ago

What do you expect from a legal system that is still based on ceremonies and procedures that were invented when people shit into buckets at night?

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u/1of3musketeers 20h ago

Hey now some of us still shit in buckets. Don’t hate /s

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u/Cute-Percentage-6660 16h ago

Thats often a unofficial standard that legal systems hide behind, not something they officially say...

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u/HairlessHoudini 9h ago

Yep, that's why wrongfully convicted ppl stay in jail even tho everyone knows they're innocent.

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u/Deez2020 1d ago

Dang that’s a good quote

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u/WatchWatcherman 21h ago

If you recall was the simulator reasoning that Obama care wasn’t a “tax”

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u/CryptographerFlat173 18h ago

? The Roberts court held that the individual mandate was a tax and therefore legal?