of morality. televangelist pat robertson, famous for blaming gay people for 9/11, and black people for hurricanes, is dead. but his legacy of shattering the lines between church and state lives on in the quixotic presidential candidacy of mike pence. also tonight, i want to tell you about an under the radar supreme court case that could affect where special counsel jack smith brings criminal charges. as we await the possible indictment of donald trump. and surprise, chief justice john roberts and justice brett kavanaugh come to the defense of voting rights in an important victory for voters in alabama. so what happens now for all the other efforts to redraw maps to marginalize voters of color? but we begin tonight with the supreme court. there was a surprising decision today reaffirming the landmark voting rights act, and we re going to get to that a bit later. but i want to start with a lesser known case that is still awaiting a ruling by the highest court in the lan
plot twist, roberts, who wrote the majority opinion in the shelby case that gutted the voting rights act, wrote the majority opinion today. here wrote, the heart of these cases is not about the law as it exists. it s about alabama s attempt to remake our section 2 jurisprudence anew. that single minded view of section 2 cannot be squared with the vra s demand that courts employ a more refined approach and be inclined to adopt an interpretation of section 2 that has been the baseline of our section 2 jurisprudence for nearly 40 years. basically, he s relying on stare decisis, the magic words which means courts and judges should honor precedence. notably, they didn t care about stare decisis when they overturned roe. that said, this is very good news and we ll take it. but that doesn t mean we re out of the woods. kavanaugh, while siding with the majority, signaled he is willing to blow up the voting rights act in the future, writing separately, even if congress in