John Roberts meets his Dred Scott moment.

October 16, 2025

The struggle for racial justice and equality took center stage in America on Wednesday, largely because the Republican Party and the reactionary majority on the Supreme Court were doing their best to set those efforts back by a century (at least). The major drama occurred during the Supreme Court’s consideration of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act’s remaining provisions. Chief Justice John Roberts’ mission in life has been to erase the gains of the Civil Rights era by invalidating the keystone legislation that ended the scourge of Jim Crow laws in the post-Civil War South. During oral argument, Roberts made his ambition clear.

On Wednesday, Roberts came one step closer to cementing his status as the equal of Justice Roger Taney, whose opinion in the Dred Scott case is universally acknowledged to be the low point of Supreme Court jurisprudence. In holding that enslaved people were “property” not entitled to rights under the Constitution, Justice Taney infamously wrote that Black people were “so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Justice Roberts seemed poised to place an exclamation point on Justice Taney’s statement by killing one of the most effective civil rights statutes ever enacted—thereby ensuring that Black people would no longer have “voting rights that the white man is bound to respect.”

Much of the reporting (not all) focused on the potential political fallout of Louisiana’s challenge to the Voting Rights Act—i.e., dire predictions that a loss in the Louisiana v. Callais case will doom Democratic chances of flipping the House in 2026. Those predictions are neither true nor predestined to occur—unless we join in the surrender of those who are ready to declare defeat in advance.

Yes, a loss in Callais will embolden some states to fracture Black majority districts into non-existence, but we are not potted plants powerless to affect the outcome of the future. The tide of public opinion is turning against the false promises of Trump’s 2024 campaign; our task is to ensure that the sea change swamps the GOP in 2026. Roberts’ evisceration of the Voting Rights Act will make our task more difficult, but not impossible.

While the political ramifications are important, it is equally important to recognize that John Roberts’ lifelong assault on voting rights for Black Americans is the culmination of a half-century of efforts by the Old South to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights era. They accomplished that task with lightning speed and a simple expedient: Packing the Supreme Court with justices hostile to equal rights for Black Americans.

The tactics employed by Republicans to suppress the voting rights of Black Americans can also be used to reform the Court and rehabilitate the rule of law. Expand the Court at the first opportunity!

Commentators agree that the reactionary majority will further restrict or end all remedies under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. See Ian Millhiser in Vox, The Supreme Court appears determined to nuke the Voting Rights Act, and Chris Geidner, Law Dork, Supreme Court likely to further diminish — but not end — Voting Rights Act cases.

Because the reactionary majority has pre-determined the outcome but has not yet agreed on a rationale, I won’t dig into the legal nuances. Ian Millhiser and Chris Geidner do an excellent job of analyzing the legal framework in the articles linked above.

But Kate Riga of Talking Points Memo exposes the reactionary majority’s animating animus. See Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo, In Supreme Court Land, Fixing Discrimination Against Black Voters Is The Real Racism.

Kate Riga writes,

A central grievance motivating today’s conservative legal movement — and the Republican Party more broadly — holds that any measure rectifying the country’s habitual discrimination against minorities actually discriminates against the in-group.

This is why “black lives matter,” a call to recognize the disproportionate violence and death Black people suffer at the hands of the state, is met with “all lives matter.”

It’s why DEI has become the battle cry for rolling back the perpetuation and memorializing of civil rights advancements.

It explains why Republicans’ fixation on protecting freedom of speech evaporates as soon as they bump up against speech they don’t like (say, a rally to protest the Trump administration’s authoritarian behavior).

Civil liberties are a zero-sum game, this thinking goes, so any protection of minority groups must implicitly harm the majority group.

In short, the reactionary majority has adopted a Catch-22 test that automatically invalidates any remedy that seeks to protect the rights of a racial minority. If the remedy uses race in fashioning a solution to race-based discrimination—as it must—then the remedy violates the Constitution (according to the reactionary majority).

That “Catch-22” approach ignores the fact that the 14^th and 15^th Amendments empower Congress to pass implementing legislation to protect voting rights against race-based suppression—which is what the Voting Rights Act does!

John Roberts may finally kill the Voting Rights Act. But it will be his Dred Scott moment, and will tarnish his name and legacy for centuries to come.

JD Vance excuses horrific racial, antisemitic, and misogynistic slurs by Young Republican leaders’ chat group

Two days ago, Politico published a story about 2,900 pages of “chat” texts by leaders of the Young Republicans in New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont. See Politico, ‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat.

The leaders were in their twenties and thirties and held political jobs, including

• Chief of Staff to New York State Assembly member Mike Reilly;

• Staffer for New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt

• Communications Assistant for Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach

• Employee at New York State Unified Court System

• Employee at Center for Arizona Policy

• Senior Adviser in the Office of General Counsel, U.S. Small Business Administration (in the Trump administration)

In short, these were not “kids,” nor were they “college students.” They were adults with responsible jobs.

Their slurs were offensive, gross, and shocking. I will not repeat them here, but if you are interested in reading the actual chats in detail, please see Jay Kuo, The Status Kuo (Substack), Keystone Klansmen. But be warned, the texts are upsetting.

Although the Young Republicans who participated in the chat group have been fired from their jobs and condemned by most Republicans, Vice President JD Vance has come to their defense, saying that the authors were “kids” (not true) involved in a “college chat” (not true). See Inquisitr, JD Vance Slams ‘Scumbag’ Reporters, Defends Young Republican After Text Scandal.

Vance said,

But the reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. . . . We’re not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old group chat to ruin a kid’s life for the rest of time.

The “jokes” would not be excusable for a 21-year-old, or an 18-year-old, or a 12-year-old. But the participants in the chat were adults who worked for state and federal agencies, legislators, and policy institutes.

And these weren’t “edgy” jokes. Joking about the Holocaust or rape is not “edgy.” It is reprehensible.

What is most remarkable is that the participants in the chat joked about the skin color of a woman from India who was dating one of them. JD Vance’s wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants to the US, and his children are the grandchildren of Indian immigrants. The fact that Vance cannot even find the moral courage or outrage to condemn a slur directed at the Indian people, given his familial connections, tells us everything we need to know about JD Vance.

Coming hard on the heels of the Young Republican scandal is the disclosure that a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill had a modified US flag on his bulletin board that incorporated the Nazi swastika. The Nazi symbol was spotted by a participant in a virtual meeting with the staffer for Republican Rep. Dave Taylor (Ohio). See Tampa Free Press, Capitol Police Investigate Swastika Found In GOP Ohio Rep. Taylor’s Office.

Rep. Taylor’s office has suggested that the swastika symbol was placed in the staffer’s office as the result of “foul play.” Should we expect JD Vance to defend the display of the swastika as an “edgy” joke—as he did with jokes about gas chambers at the concentration camps by the Young Republican leaders?

At a time when the Supreme Court is dismantling protections for descendants of enslaved people, defending Republican officials who “joke” about white supremacy and Nazi atrocities is beyond the pale of decency and humanity.

Concluding Thoughts

I need to cut the newsletter short this evening to take care of some family matters, but I did not want to end the newsletter after recounting negative stories about the depravity of the Supreme Court and Republican leadership.

Every American who is resisting the lawlessness of the Trump administration should be ecstatic over two developments. First, a second university—Brown University—has rejected the “compact” that the Trump administration is attempting to force on leading academic institutions. See the following press release: Brown University president declines invitation for Brown to join federal Compact. With MIT and Brown leading the way, there is no excuse for other universities! They must follow suit and reject Trump’s extortion! There is strength and safety in solidarity!

Speaking of solidarity, major media outlets acted in unison to reject the Pentagon’s attempt to prohibit media outlets from publishing confidential or classified information about the US military. See AP News, Journalists turn in access badges, exit Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules. The outlets walking out of the Pentagon include Pete Hegseth’s former employer, Fox News.

Per AP,

Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 p.m. deadline set by the Defense Department to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.

Coordinated resistance is how we will stop Trump’s lawless behavior! The NY Times published a timely guest op-ed by Professor Henry J. Farrell (Johns Hopkins), Where Trump Is Vulnerable and How to Act on It. (Accessible to all.)

Professor Farrell highlights the actions of Brown University and the major media outlets in resisting the Pentagon. He writes,

President Trump is trying to seize power that he is not entitled to under the law or the Constitution.

But Mr. Trump will fail in remaking American politics if people and institutions coordinate against him, which is why his administration is targeting businesses, nonprofits and the rest of civil society, proposing corrupting bargains to those who acquiesce and punishing holdouts to terrify the rest into submission. [¶]

Those who oppose authoritarianism have to play a different game, creating solidarity among an unwieldy coalition, which knows that if everyone holds together, they will surely succeed. This too can become a self-reinforcing set of expectations — but only if the coalition’s members resist the threats and promises of those who are trying to break it.

American institutions are finally beginning to understand the urgency of solidarity. Trump will not stop until he is met with overwhelming political opposition. When he is, he will have no one to bully, threaten, coerce, or bribe. Solidarity is the way forward—for the American people and the institutions that underpin civil society and democracy.

No Kings Day will be a massive show of solidarity by the American people. Let’s make it as large and unmistakable as possible so that Trump—and his enablers—get the hint.

Talk to you tomorrow! Stay strong!

Protest Photos

Below, Indivisible San Jose:

Below: “Worthington, OH, during our weekly Rush-Hour Resistance Rallies on the village green, where attendance has grown to 50+ stationed on all four corners of this busy intersection.”

Below: “Here are photos from last Saturday’s protest on and around the pedestrian overpass on Treat Boulevard in Walnut Creek, CA. This was the 34th Indivisible ReSisters weekly Saturday protest in a row.”

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