I wonder what goes through the mind of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts these frantic days as he reads one account after another of voter suppression in the 2016 election. Does he regret his decisive vote in Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 decision that struck down the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act?
Does he acknowledge, even to himself, that by stripping federal officials of much of their power to preclude discriminatory election rules he has disenfranchised countless American citizens who have been blocked from voting this election cycle? Does he feel bad, or silly even, about proclaiming how “different” things are today when it comes to racial discrimination in voting? Things don’t look so different to that 100-year-old woman in North Carolina whom Republicans tried to disenfranchise, do they?