美国国家公共电台 NPR--最高法院：阿拉巴马州可能会使用共和党支持的该州国会选区地图

Supreme¹ Court: Alabama may use GOP-backed map of the state's congressional districts

Transcript²

NPR's A Martinez talks to SCOTUSblog reporter Amy Howe, about the U.S. Supreme Court blocking an effort to create a second majority-Black congressional district in Alabama for the 2022 election.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

The Voting Rights Act took a hit on Monday after the Supreme Court stopped a lower court that said Alabama's new congressional map doesn't give power to Black voters. The lower court had said to comply with the Voting Rights Act, Alabama had to create two majority Black districts. The state is more than one-quarter Black. Now, Alabama will use a GOP-backed map of the state's congressional districts. Earlier this morning, we called up SCOTUSblog co-founder Amy Howe.

AMY HOWE: It's another ruling that shows the effect of the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020 and her replacement³ with the much more conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. This was a ruling in which Chief Justice John Roberts, who we don't think of as a liberal, joined the court's three liberal justices. But that only gets you four votes, and you need five to form a majority. So that means that the state's map is going to stay in place for the 2022 elections, even though a three-judge panel, that notably⁴ includes two judges appointed by President Donald Trump⁵, said that it violated the Voting Rights Act, which shows you how conservative the Supreme Court has become.

MARTINEZ: So what did the justices say?

HOWE: So the justices, as a court, didn't say that much. We didn't hear from the majority to explain this decision to put the order on hold. This came to the court on the so-called shadow docket. Alabama was asking the justices to put the lower court's decision on hold on an emergency basis. But we heard from three different sets of justices. The main dissent⁶ was Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. And she said the lower court got it exactly right. What the state is asking us to do is to rewrite decades of precedent⁷. And by putting the lower court's ruling on hold, we're allowing elections to go ahead with the state's map even though the lower court found that it violated the Voting Rights Act.

The chief justice wrote a separate dissent. He did not join Justice Kagan's dissent. He, too, would have kept the lower court's order on hold and required the state to draw a new map for the 2022 elections. He said the district court may have gotten a lot right as it currently stands. But, he said, the law governing these kinds of cases is confusing. It does need clarification. And so he agreed with the decision to go ahead and hear oral arguments.

And then the third opinion came from Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Samuel Alito. It was, in essence, a response to Justice Kagan. He said, we're not allowing the state to rewrite decades of precedent. We're not rewriting decades of precedent. We're just - we're not weighing in on the merits of the case at all. We're just setting the case for oral argument. And then I'm going to get a little wonky here, because he talked about something called the Purcell principle, which, I think, is something we're going to hear a lot about in 2022 and 2024. It's the idea that federal courts shouldn't intervene in state elections in the run-up to the election. He said the primary's coming up, and it's basically too late to make changes now.

MARTINEZ: Amy, quickly, when is the court expected to take this up?

HOWE: So the court didn't fast track this case. It's done that with a couple of cases - the vaccine⁸ case, the Texas abortion⁹ case. So we're all operating under the presumption¹⁰ that they're not going to hear this case until the fall. And in that case, we would get a decision, in all likelihood, sometime after the 2022 elections, probably in early 2023, in which case the people who would be elected to Congress under the current map would already be in Congress.

MARTINEZ: That's SCOTUSblog co-founder Amy Howe. Amy, thanks.

HOWE: Thank you for having me.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

4 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

7 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

8 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

9 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

10 presumption   

n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定

参考例句：

• Please pardon my presumption in writing to you.请原谅我很冒昧地写信给你。
• I don't think that's a false presumption.我认为那并不是错误的推测。