Vox Sentences - SCOTUS upholds GOP voting maps

SCOTUS restores Alabama congressional map that voting rights advocates say diminishes the power of Black voters; Macron and Putin offer differing accounts of talks on the Ukraine crisis.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

The Supreme Court chisels away at voting rights

Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images

• The Supreme Court — at least temporarily — restored an Alabama congressional map a lower court had ruled diminished the power of the state’s Black voters. Beyond diluting the voting power of Black Alabamians, the decision could signal further dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters from discrimination. [New York Times / Adam Liptak]
• The Court’s 5-4 vote means Alabama can’t draw any new maps until the Supreme Court hears the full case in its fall term. So the current maps, which  the lower court determined to be an illegal racial gerrymander, will remain in place for the 2022 midterm elections. [Vox/ Ian Millhiser]
• Justice Elena Kagan wrote a dissent for the liberal justices, arguing the Court’s decision does a “disservice to Black Alabamians,” who account for 27 percent of the state’s voting population but only have a majority in one of seven districts in the current map. [NBC / Pete Williams]
• Five of the Court's conservative justices said nine months before an election was too close to redraw Alabama’s map. “Late judicial tinkering with election laws can lead to disruption and to unanticipated and unfair consequences for candidates, political parties, and voters, among others,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion. [CBS / Aaron Navarro] 
• Should the court ultimately rule to uphold the maps, the power of Black and Hispanic voters, who tend to lean Democratic, could be greatly diminished by states gerrymandering their electoral maps to favor the GOP. [Washington Post / Amber Phillips]

France's Macron talks Ukraine with Putin

• French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for five hours at the Kremlin on Monday to discuss Ukraine. There are contradictory reports on how much progress the leader made in deescalating the situation. [NYT / Michael Schwirtz and Ivan Nechepurenko]
• The two men met to discuss a tense situation: Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, and is demanding assurances that NATO would not accept Ukraine as a member — demands the US has repeatedly rebuffed. [CNN / Eliza Mackintosh and Nathan Hodge]
• Macron told reporters that Putin said he "won’t be initiating an escalation” of troops on the Russian border, but the Kremlin quickly denied reports of an agreement: “In the current situation, Moscow and Paris can’t be reaching any deals,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. [Associated Press / Sylvie Corbet and Dasha Litvinova]
• Also on Monday, President Joe Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss a joint response to Ukraine. Biden said if Russia invades Ukraine, “we will bring an end to it” — "it" being the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would pump Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany. Scholz’s answer on canceling the project, which Germany needs to meet its energy needs, was vague. [Politico / Myah Ward]

The Power of the Dog leads the 2022 Oscars race with 12 nominations. [AP / Jake Coyle]

• Due to a security threat, second gentleman Doug Emhoff was escorted out of a Black History Month event at a DC high school. [The Hill / Brett Samuels]
• Hong Kong has introduced its strictest social distancing yet as it faces a surge of omicron cases. [NYT / Austin Ramzy and Rebecca Robbins]
• Retired Pope Benedict XVI, 94, has asked for forgiveness for his handling of child sex abuse cases against the Catholic Church. [CNN / Richard Allen Greene and Hada Messia]

“Maps produced without consideration of party or race typically include more Republican districts.” 

[Professors Jowei Chen and Nicholas Stephanopoulos describe the future of race-blind voting rights / Yale Law Journal]

Speed skating legend Apolo Ohno explains his “perfect race.” [YouTube]

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