For Immediate Release

ALLEGATIONS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION MAKE REPUBLICAN JUDGES MORE LIKELY TO APPROVE VOTER SUPPRESSION, NEW ANALYSIS FINDS

GOP-appointed judges approved racially discriminatory voter suppression measures 90 percent of time in 2020

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 2, 2020) —Republican-appointed judges are more likely to allow voter suppression in cases where litigants demonstrate that policies would disproportionately harm people of color, a new analysis from Take Back the Court shows.

Republican-appointed judges have made it harder for people of color to vote in 90 percent of 2020 votes involving policies with transparently racially discriminatory effects. Among Trump-appointed justices, the number climbs to a jaw-dropping 94 percent of cases. By comparison, in cases without allegations of racial discrimination, Republican- and Trump-appointed judges cast anti-democracy votes in 71 and 76 percent of cases respectively.

“It’s not just that Republican-appointed judges—and Trump judges especially—are hostile to democracy,” said Take Back the Court Director Aaron Belkin. “They go the extra mile to crack down on voting when it’s clear that people of color will bear the brunt of the damage.”

Building on its Anti-Democracy Scorecard project released in October, Take Back the Court analyzed 170 votes by Republican judges in cases that affect the casting, collecting, or counting ballots. Seventy-eight of those votes came in cases where litigants provided evidence that the policy under consideration would have disparate impacts on the basis of race. Republican-appointed judges ruled against voting rights in 70 of them. Trump-appointed justices sided with voter suppression in 34 of 36 votes involving racial discrimination.

“The Republican party is systematically working to enshrine White minority rule, and the courts—all the way up to the Supreme Court—are complicit,” Belkin added. “Our diverse, multiracial democracy simply cannot survive that kind of assault. We must take back the judiciary.”

View the full Discriminatory Voter Suppression Scorecard and methodology here, or download Take Back the Court’s memo

Take Back the Court raises awareness about the urgent need to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court to address the theft of the court by Senator Mitch McConnell during the Obama Administration. Without adding seats, Congress will not be able to restore the right to vote, ensure reproductive freedom, protect workers, halt our climate emergency, or pass new legislation. Court expansion, which can be accomplished without a constitutional amendment, is the only reform that enables the un-rigging of the system and the restoration of democracy. Learn more at https://www.takebackthecourt.today.