Voting

The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy (tm) called, and apparently I'm supposed to say something about the Supreme Court decision overturning the Voting Rights Act. I'll leave it to greater legal minds than me to explain how "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation" doesn't mean what it appears to mean. (Roberts, in his opinion, didn't bother.)

I will talk about the current way of preventing "voter fraud." I put that in scare quotes because there really isn't any voter fraud - defined as people who shouldn't vote voting. In the entire United States, "voter fraud" consists of literal handfuls of people out of hundreds of millions. You have better odds of hitting a hole-in-one than actually seeing voter fraud.

At any rate, the current scheme to prevent "voter fraud" is requiring a photo ID to vote. Now, there are some folks (old, those that don't drive) who don't have such ID, but most Americans do. This makes it hard to argue against, as long as the process for getting such an ID is workable. In short, voter ID is coming. It will solve a non-existent problem, but it's coming.

I would also note that progress, while inevitable, does not move in a straight line. But we are progressing - nobody will be able to reinstate the more egregious Jim Crow voting laws.

WTF, Supreme Court Edition

So, despite specific language in the Constitution to the contrary, Congress does not have the right to draft legislation enforcing the right to vote. But, despite the words "gay" or "homosexual" not even appearing in the Constitution, Congress ALSO doesn't have the right to pass legislation governing what is recognized as a marriage?

Look, I'm really fine with gay marriage. I really am. But damn it, the Supreme Court is supposed to make decisions based on the Constitution, not on whatever makes them feel good. We did not elect the Supreme Court to be some kind of super-legislature.

Given this one-two punch, it's hard to see them as anything BUT an un-elected legislature.