Obama ripped for SCOTUS hot take after support for Virginia 'gerrymander'
Former President Barack Obama was lambasted for rebuking a new Supreme Court ruling against race-based redistricting in Louisiana, just days after cutting ads for a Virginia effort to transform that...
By Fox News · Fox News
Former President Barack Obama was lambasted for rebuking a new Supreme Court ruling against race-based redistricting in Louisiana, just days after cutting ads for a Virginia effort to transform that state's map into a 10-1 Democratic advantage. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against Louisiana's 2024 mid-decade redistricting that produced a serpentine district represented by Rep. Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge, calling it an "illegal" racial gerrymander, while Obama argued the decision weakened a Voting Rights Act provision prohibiting race-based discrimination. "Today’s Supreme Court decision effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities — so long as they do it under the guise of ‘partisanship’ rather than explicit ‘racial bias’," Obama said. "Unless it’s Virginia. In that case, it’s great to have a 10-1 gerrymander," Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer replied in a post on X. SPANBERGER FACES ‘BAIT-AND-SWITCH’ BACKLASH IN FINAL HOURS BEFORE REDISTRICTING REFERENDUM Fleischer was joined by former North Carolina Congressman and ex-Trump aide Mark Meadows, who addressed Obama to say his rebuke was "beneath you." Former DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also weighed in, remarking that, to the former president, "disenfranchising millions of voters and forcing 45% of Virginians to be represented by one congressional district and 55% represented by 10 is now 'standing up for Democracy.' "Is that 'equity'? What a farce." Obama went on to slam the current makeup of the Supreme Court and its conservative majority, saying its decision in the case is another example of "abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach." Other critics noted Obama has been mum on his own home state's gerrymandered map, which features several…