It's early October, which means a new term is officially underway at the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's term is in full swing. GBH News legal analyst and Northeastern Law Professor Daniel Medwed joined GBH’s Morning Edition co-hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel to talk about two prominent cases. This transcript has been lightly edited.
Jeremy Siegel: Let's start with the Supreme Court. Their term just began yesterday. What's happening there this morning?
Daniel Medwed: This morning, the justices will hear a pair of arguments that involve a challenge to how Alabama drew up its electoral map. Alabama has seven congressional districts and even though its population is 27 percent Black. The way that the Republican-dominated legislature separated the districts effectively means that Black voters realistically only have a chance to elect their preferred candidate in one of those seven districts. Frankly, if you look at this map, it looks like a toddler's Etch-A-Sketch gone wild. Remember that game? It's a series of zigs and zags that do not correspond with natural boundaries like rivers, or county lines, but presumably just track demographic trends. That appears to be a blatant attempt to dilute the voting strength of the Black population of Alabama. So the Supreme Court is going to take a look this morning and see whether or not it passes legal muster.
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