From Charlie Pierce:
One of the more signifying moments in Wednesday's oral arguments at the Supreme Court regarding the Voting Rights Act came when Chuef Justice John Roberts asked Solicitor General Ralph Verrilli:
"Do you know which state has the worst ratio of white voter turnout to African-American voter turnout?" "I do not know that," Verrilli answered.
"Massachusetts," Roberts responded, adding that even Mississippi has a narrower gap.--snip--
The problem is, Roberts is woefully wrong on those points, according to Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who on Thursday branded Roberts's assertion a slur and made a declaration of his own. "I'm calling him out," Galvin said. Galvin was not alone in his view. Academics and Massachusetts politicians said that Roberts appeared to be misguided. A Supreme Court spokeswoman declined to offer supporting evidence of Roberts's view, referring a reporter to the court transcript. On Thursday, Galvin tried to set the record straight. "We have one of the highest voter registrations in the country," he said, "so this whole effort to make a cheap-shot point at Massachusetts is deceptive...In the November 2012 election, there was little difference in voter turnout in Boston neighborhoods with high concentrations of white or black voters. In Charlestown, where 80 percent of residents are white, 68 percent of voters cast ballots in November. In Roxbury, the traditional heart of Boston's African-American community, about 64 percent of voters came out to the polls. Galvin and political scientists speculated that Roberts drew his conclusions using US Census Bureau data known as "The Current Population Survey," which collects information on voting and registration every other year. Political scientists say this is one of the few national databases, if not the only one, providing state-by-state voting information.Read the whole thing and then tell me they're not trying to fuck us with our pants on.
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