Election Law guru Rick Hasen tweeted out this screenshot of a conversation between Senator-Elect Doug Jones and Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (and I found this in a Retweet by International Business Times reporter Alex Kotch).
I… think I saw a movie about this once.
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And while his attempt to literally whitewash the pre-Voting Rights Act era is cartoonishly vile, the truly despicable part may be the “if qualified” caveat tacked on at the end. It’s almost too perfect as a callback to overt segregationism. “Those people weren’t disenfranchised… they weren’t qualified because they failed the poll test!” Today it’s more likely to be “they weren’t qualified because they didn’t have a valid driver’s license” despite Alabama’s attempt to close many of the DMVs in primarily black areas (it’s since had to backtrack on several proposed closures) and many African-Americans in the state living in an area so poor the UN had to do a doubletake when they saw it where cars are a luxury for many rather than a necessity.
But get used to these “objective” standards. As Chief Justice Roberts — who no doubt sees Doug Jones as vindication of his jurisprudence rather than terrifying proof that it takes a twice disciplined accused predator to lose by a handful of votes — pointed out in Shelby County, the South has changed.
Yes… it’s going backward.
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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.