SCOTUS
June 8, 2022 -
Texas is heading to court to defend new election districts that divide and disempower Black and Latino communities while benefiting the GOP. The districts remain in play for this year's elections, but judges could order new ones before 2024.
April 21, 2022 -
Over protests by the state's Black lawmakers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed his fellow Republicans to adopt a congressional district map that is expected to slash the number of Black representatives for the state. The new map could be challenged in court, but appellate courts have recently sided with the GOP in voting rights cases.
February 9, 2022 -
The president has pledged to nominate the first Black woman to the highest court in the land to replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. A few of the potential justices are judges or judicial nominees from Southern states, including two with extensive experience as voting rights lawyers.
February 13, 2020 -
Supreme courts in every other Southern state have addressed the problem of racist jury selection. But in the decades since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such discrimination unconstitutional, North Carolina courts have turned away every claim.
March 29, 2019 -
Governors in Florida and North Carolina recently appointed Jewish justices to their state supreme courts — a first for North Carolina. Studies have shown that Jewish judges, as well as those who belong to other religious minorities, tend to rule in favor of religious freedom.
April 21, 2016 -
This week the Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging President Obama's deportation relief programs for undocumented immigrants. Most Southern states are plaintiffs in the case — even though the programs would benefit many immigrants in the region.
May 22, 2006 -
The war over who will run the Southern courts continues to escalate. The latest flashpoint: President Bush's recent pick of Michael Wallace, Sen. Trent Lott's counsel in the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial, to the 5th U.S.
