Linda Greenhouse has written, John Roberts’s Long Game. Is this the End of the Voting Rights Act?–an insightful preview of Merrill v. Milligan, which will be argued on October 4. The lengthy Atlantic article cuts straight to the point:

“The justices have framed the question for this round as ‘whether the State of Alabama’s 2021 redistricting plan for its seven seats in the United States House of Representatives violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.’ But the real question, the perilous one underlying that seemingly benign formulation, is this: Is Section 2 itself constitutional?“

The rest of the article proceeds to explain the intersections between John Roberts’s early career and the doctrinal backstory. It is too bad she did not directly explain City of Boerne v. Flores (1997) which would bolster why she is right to be concerned, but otherwise I found this a very accessible summary of the stakes.