Both Amicus, hosted by Dahlia Lithwick, and Strict Scrutiny, hosted by Leah Litman, Melissa Murray, and Kate Shaw, recently welcomed Lecturer in Law Deuel Ross L’09 to discuss the history, nuances, and imperative implications of Merrill v. Milligan, the case he argued in front of the Supreme Court on October 4. Central to the case is the Voting Rights Act and the constitutionality of gerrymandering.
Ross is Senior Counsel & Director of Professional Development at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and has taught a voting rights seminar at the Law School.
Dahlia Lithwick is joined by two key players from this week’s consequential voting rights cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s senior counsel Deuel Ross argued part of Merrill v. Milligan at the high court on Tuesday, and Evan Milligan of Alabama Forward is the named plaintiff in one of a pair of cases that argued that Alabama’s congressional maps are racially gerrymandered in violation of Section II of the Voting Rights Act. They take listeners inside the arguments and provide vital context for the challenges faced by residents of Alabama’s Black Belt in accessing health care, infrastructure and not coincidentally, political representation.
Listen to the full conversation here.
From Strict Scrutiny:
Melissa, Kate, and Leah welcome Sam Sankar of Earthjustice and Deuel Ross of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to recap arguments the Supreme Court heard this week in two big cases. Sackett v. EPA is a challenge to the EPA’s authority to regulate wetlands, and Merrill v. Milligan is a Voting Rights Act case out of Alabama that’s really about whether Congress may ensure the representation and political power of voters of color.