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on Monday.com in response to Supreme Court instructions to consider whether Alabama's congressional maps remain unconstitutional and illegal under the new interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, a three judge panel in Alabama of all places has said that map is too racist even for us and intentional racism having been found at the highest levels of the Alabama Legislature. The three judge panel has said you're not using the racist this map for the midterms and has struck it down despite a month ago the United States Supreme Court doing everything it could to gut the Voting Rights act. They left one pin standing. It's like bowling except racism. The one pin standing is if a court finds intentional racism by the map makers then they can still use the Voting Rights Act. And there we have a three judge panel has found intentional racism in this breaking decision. This is a boon to the Democrats and the democracy and to black empowerment in the south which is being picked off one by one by legislatures. I'm Michael Popak, you're here on the Midas Touch Network and let's get down to the new result Supreme Court sent back to various states like Alabama and said reconsider whether you would strike down this map under our new interpretation of the Voting Rights act in section 2 issued by Judge Judge Alito. In a moment in this hot take I'm going to explain to you why Judge Alito's premise is based on faulty data and false statistics and should never have been issued. That's for later in the hot take, but let's talk about Alabama three judge panel, two of them Trump appointees in Manasco and Moorer and Senior Judge Marcus. So the three M's got together for the second time related to these maps and here's what they had to say about the legislature trying to put some sort of sheen or imprimatur over blatant racism. Quote from the order which we'll post on Legal AF Substack these events along with the legislators contemporaneous statements about race meaning in the House for Alabama they talked openly about getting rid of black representation support only one inference, the panel ruled the the purpose of the 2023 map was to distribute black voters across districts to dilute their votes, to crack the black districts. Right, and to spread them out among and then to pack them into one. The panel wrote. Council argues mightily that the legislature's partisan motives drove the creation of the map. In other words, they did it because of trying to get more Republican seats, not to eliminate blacks. But this erroneous record contains no evidence of a partisan motive. And the only evidence on the issue cuts against one. Alabama's legislative leadership testified that overtures from national party leaders did not affect their work. So it wasn't about make more Republicans, it was about eliminating black people, they say. Further in their order, which the Alabama governor has already said she's going to appeal, the panel led by Judge Marcus said, we reject in the strongest possible terms the state's attempt to finish its intentional decision to dilute minority votes with a veneer of legislative regularity. Not going to, you're not going to get away with, oh, you passed the law and therefore your racism's okay. Now this is all that's left to federal courts under the Calais decision from a month ago, which said under voting section 2 of the Voting Rights act, only if there's intentional racism reflected in the record can a map be struck down. Well, now federal judges, even in the south are on the hunt for just such record evidence. That's all they're left with. You know, just as now legislatures are trying to hide behind the veneer of we're just trying to make more Republicans. We're not trying to eliminate black people who all happen to be Democrats in the South. No, now federal judges are going to have to look carefully in the record to determine whether intentional racism exists and they found it in Alabama for the second time. So it's hats off to this three judge panel. I mean, Manasco and more are Trump appointees. Marcus comes from the Neiman Marcus family fortune, I believe the department store fortune been on since Clinton. Now this is the second time they ruled these maps were wrong. In 2022, they said that eliminating another black district was clearly racist. The Supreme Court supported it, but then came out a month ago, 6 to 3 alt right MAGA majority 6 to 3 written by Alito in the Calais decision that left standing only intentional racism as a ground to strike a map. Oh, I'm very excited to tell you about the world's number one expanding garden hose and their brand new product, the pocket hose Ballistic. I used to have to buy a new hose every year due to kinks and tangles. But the pocket hose ballistic is the upgrade I've been looking for my entire life. It's the toughest pocket hose ever built. Reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bulletproof vest Pocket hose is the number one expandable hose in the world. Super lightweight, easy to manage, easy to store. Turn the water on and it grows. Turn the water off and it shrinks back to pocket size. Comes with the pocket pivot which gives you total freedom of movement at the spigot with 360 degree rotation. You move it, it follows and the water flows. And now for a limited time, when you purchase a new pocket hose ballistic, you'll get a free 360 degree rotating pocket pivot and a free thumb drive nozzle. Just Text legal to 64,000. That's legal to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase text legal to 64,000 message and data may apply. Now let's talk about Calais for a minute, shall we? Then I'll talk about what happens in the intersection of law and politics. Calais. The new reporting is the Judge Alito relied on false data, or at least false data analysis to reach the conclusion that we can get rid of section two. Because in the 60 years or so since the Civil Rights act in 1965 that we've become a post racial world, everybody, good news, no more racists. And he used data that he got wrong. In particular, he relied on data that said that that there was. Let me read it to you from page 26 and 27 of the Calais decision. Section 2 does not require abandonment of the framework, but we need to update it first, he says on page 26. Vast social change has occurred throughout the country and in the South. The Voting Rights act led to great strides in the ensuing decades. Voting tests were abolished, disparities in voter registration and turnout due to race were erased and African Americans attained political office in record numbers. Yes, all being picked off now under the guise of we're just doing it for partisan reasons and here's the lie about the data. Black voters now participate in elections at similar rates as the rest of the electorate, even turning out at higher rates than white voters in two of the five most recent presidential elections, citing the Commerce Department, the Census Bureau and tables. Those are all wrong because they take as a percentage the Total Number of 18 years or older people, regardless of whether they're voters, regardless of whether they are citizens. If you just take registered voters Every year, voter voter registration and participation by black black community has gone down and widened the gap between white participation and black participation. You can only make this conclusion, which is the premise of Sam Alito's decision in Calais to destroy section 2. You can only reach that conclusion if you fudge the numbers and cook the books and you use as Your denominator total 18 year olds instead of 18 year old voters. In reality, voter participation by the black population, black Americans, has declined every year. It hasn't outperformed whites in two of the five presidential elections, only one since 2015, the one involving Barack Obama. So this again is the fraud. It's not the first time that Alito has been accused of cooking the books on data or using fake data or fake historical references in order to support his opinion. Look at the amount of plaintiffs appellants that come to the Supreme Court who are fraudulent. And that's never ignored by the Supreme Court who just wants any old case in front of them so they can make a ruling that supports Trump. I mean, you have the phony baker who said that they didn't want to bake a cake for a gay, a gay family and that led to a destruction of gay rights in America. The baker didn't bake cakes for weddings. Or the phony website designer who said they didn't want to design a website for a gay marriage for a gay couple for a gay marriage. They don't design websites either. And how about Kallay himself? Bert Kallay of the namesake of the case. He's an election denier and a maga. Maga. But the Supreme Court doesn't care. The MAGA six don't. Fortunately, the three judge panel in Alabama at the trial court level do see that this was not an appellate panel. This was a three judge specialty panel put together to review maps. And when they based in 102 page decision, when they find in the record that there is this level of actual racism, you know it exists. Here's what it means for the Democrats and those that protect the democracy going forward. After the Kali decision, Tennessee immediately got rid of its black representation. Louisiana, the same thing. South Carolina on Tuesday night is going to decide whether to get rid of Jim Clyburn, the civil rights leader and the sole block in Congress. The congressional delegation for South Carolina, Missouri and Georgia say they're going to do the same thing in 2028. We got to win in Alabama. And these are the arguments that have to now be raised by advocates like democracy docket and Mark Elias and the aclu. They've got to argue intentional racism. They got to look hard in the record. They got to find those statements. They got to search social media to see that these have nothing to do with trying to make new Trump Republicans but have everything to do about eliminating black empowerment in the south, plain and simple. So we're going to continue to follow it. And now it's going to land on the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court on some sort of emergency docket. I'm sure I'm going to be back here. I might as Touch and Legal AF reporting about a shadow docket, emergency briefing coming up through. Probably Sam Alito or Clarence Thomas out of Alabama, you know, as they take the appeal. This goes directly now to the United States Supreme Court. It skips the 11th Circuit for Alabama and it's on a fast track to the Supremes. The question is, is it going to be an emergency docket with just two briefs and no oral argument and some sort of ruling, or is it going to be on full briefing and an oral argument over time, given the fast approaching primary season, you know they're going to take it on a fast short circuited track with an improper record and then make whatever decision, reflexively, ideologically that the six who control the Supreme Court want to make. How far will John Roberts go now that he's been called out for his own racism? How far will he go to destroy black empowerment in the south and have that be part of his legacy? He's already gotten rid of women's rights. He's already gotten rid of reproductive rights on his watch. He's already given a presidency criminal immunity. And we see what's happened with that. With Donald Trump being out of control, will he go so far as to take away black empowerment and send us back to the Jim Crow era in the South? We'll be watching carefully here on Midas Touch and Legal af. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button over on Legal Afghanistan as well. Until my next report, I'm Michael Pillpok.
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Episode Title: Whoa! Trump Judges make Shock Ruling and Block Maps
Air Date: May 26, 2026
Host: Michael Popok (with Ben Meiselas and Karen Friedman Agnifilo part of regular rotation)
Theme: Breaking down a landmark ruling by a federal three-judge panel in Alabama striking down racially discriminatory congressional maps despite recent Supreme Court efforts to narrow legal remedies for such cases.
This episode dives into a shocking federal court decision where a three-judge panel in Alabama—comprised largely of Trump appointees—struck down the state’s 2023 congressional map for intentional racial discrimination. Host Michael Popok provides legal analysis of how this decision fits into the broader context of recent Supreme Court rulings, the Trump-ified judiciary, and the ongoing battle over Voting Rights Act protections for Black voters in the South.
“The purpose of the 2023 map was to distribute black voters across districts to dilute their votes, to crack the black districts... and then to pack them into one.” — Michael Popok reading from the panel’s order [02:25]
“Now federal judges, even in the south, are on the hunt for just such record evidence. That’s all they’re left with.” — Michael Popok [05:51]
“You can only reach [Alito’s] conclusion if you fudge the numbers... In reality, voter participation by the black population, black Americans, has declined every year.” — Michael Popok [09:41]
“How far will John Roberts go now that he’s been called out for his own racism? … He’s already given a presidency criminal immunity. Will he take away black empowerment and send us back to Jim Crow?” — Michael Popok [13:09]
| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------|---------------------------------------------| | 00:28 | Introduction to Alabama court ruling | | 02:25 | Reading directly from court's order | | 04:30 | SCOTUS restrictions after Calais Decision | | 07:18 | Critique of Alito’s data misuse in Calais | | 10:36 | SCOTUS pattern of accepting bad-faith cases | | 11:30 | Broader democratic implications in the South | | 12:25 | Appeal to SCOTUS, risk of shadow docket | | 13:09 | Final reflections on Roberts, legacy, rights |
The show blends urgent legal analysis with a candid, sometimes sarcastic critique of current judicial trends. Doubt and distrust of recent Supreme Court actions are woven through the episode, matched with a sense of resolve to fight for civil rights using the tools left in the legal arsenal.
For further info and full documents, listen to the full episode and check Legal AF’s Substack for source material.