The new John Lewis voting rights bill reins in the Supreme Court.

Of course the Senate filibuster rule stands in the way. - gwc

The new John Lewis voting rights bill reins in the Supreme Court.

by Mark Joseph Stern   //SLATE

On Tuesday, Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, also known as H.R. 4. As Ian Millhiser explained in Vox, H.R. 4 essentially overturns the Supreme Court’s recent attacks on voting rights: Its central provisions give both the Justice Department and federal courts sweeping authority to block voter suppression laws. But one crucial section takes a more creative approach: The House bill actually repeals the court’s own rules for deciding election-related cases—which strongly favor states’ ability to suppress votes—replacing them with voter-friendly directives that would force the justices to safeguard equal suffrage. H.R. 4 also takes on the “shadow docket,” prohibiting the Supreme Court from issuing unreasoned emergency orders reversing lower court decisions that protected the franchise. And it abolishes the legal doctrine that allows the justices to shield anti-voting laws from judicial scrutiny in the run-up to an election.

H.R. 4, in short, is court reform. It is the clearest indication yet that House Democrats are getting serious about reining in an out-of-control Supreme Court.

To understand H.R. 4’s court reform provisions, it’s important to remember how the Supreme Court tried to curb voting access during the 2020 election. In light of the pandemic, many citizens filed lawsuits alleging that various voting restrictions were illegally burdensome. These suits typically sought modest alterations to election law, such as liberalizing vote-by-mail, allowing curbside voting for at-risk groups, and expanding ballot drop boxes. Lower courts frequently granted these requests, finding that Americans’ right to vote without fear of a COVID infection outweighed states’ interest in enforcing their election laws.