BREAKING: State Supreme Court deals SURPRISE LOSS to Republicans

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, all eyes. are on Georgia right now. We have major. news from the Georgia Supreme Court. Can. you explain what just happened? Yeah, this is a blockbuster ruling. You know, the Georgia Supreme Court, which is very. conservative, very Republican, issued a. unanimous decision, striking down in. their entirety four different rules that. were put in place by the state election. board. You may remember this is that. that board where Donald Trump at a rally.

called out three of the members by name. and praised them. This is the board that. was promulgating rules to try to allow. election deniers to refuse to certify. election results. This is the board that. had rules to to try to slow down the. counting process by having handc. counting process. Well, you know, they. got sued. The Republican National. Committee got involved in this case. because they really wanted these rules. to stay in place. And in a big surprise. to a lot of people, myself included,

they got shut out today in the state. supreme court. Four of those rules, the. four worst of them got struck down and. will no longer have uh be in in force. moving forward. I I do want to point out. that this is not some liberal uh state. supreme court. The Georgia Supreme Court. is overwhelmingly conservative. I mean, the the members were appointed by. Republican governors who have con. consistently won elections in that. state. And so, what does it say that. even these right-wing judges who. populate the state supreme court uh.

weren't willing to stomach what the. Georgia State Election Board was. attempting to do? Yeah, it's really. interesting because, as you point out, there are eight current members of the. state supreme court in Georgia, seven of. whom were appointed by Republican uh. governors. And you know, these, like you. said, are are pretty a pretty. conservative bunch. You look at some of. their other rulings, and you can see. that they are pretty conservative. But. in this case, they really went out of. their way to say a few things. Number. one, that there is a right to vote, that.

that right to vote is protected by the. state constitution, that the legislature. can't delegate to this right-wing board. the power to do some of the things they. did, and that this board overstepped. some of the authority, even if it was. granted. So this was a a really strong. rebuke all the way around. I mean the. the state supreme court actually. overturned some prior precedent uh. saying that star decisis you know which. is what causes courts to follow prior. president should not apply. So it like.

literally, you know, rewrote the rules. in many respects about what cases they. can hear, how things get decided, what. the rights of of of individual voters. are. And they did it in a case to really. slam the efforts by the election ins uh. uh backed by the Republican National. Committee here uh uh trying to get these. rules in place. And you know, people may. say, well, but that was 2024. This, you. know, that it doesn't matter. No, there. are big elections coming up in the state.

of Georgia uh in 2026, including a very. critical US uh Senate race. So, you. know, this is no small matter. And I. think what it says is that we see time. and time again that even conservative. judges and justices just don't want to. bite off on some of the wackiest, craziest, conspiracyladen, you know, uh uh uh uh MAGA supporters. who are in these positions of power. And.

so I feel like you know the next. question that's coming. But in every. instance where these magnet Republicans. don't get what they want, they either. seek some method to appeal this stuff, although I'm presuming that because this. is the Georgia Supreme Court, that's not. going to happen, or to just outright. eliminate the court's ability to even. litigate these issues. And so we've seen. numerous instances where states have. begun to float the independent uh state. legislature theory where the courts. wouldn't even be able to have a say in. what the legislature does. the. legislature would basically um be an.

unchecked power when it comes to how. they uh how they uh litigate these these. election rules. And so is there some. concern that just like the independent. state legislature theory popped up in. North Carolina and a few other states. around the country that Georgia. Republicans are going to attempt the. same thing? Yeah, I don't think that. that is going to get any traction here. in part because as you say the state. supreme court has already ruled. I don't. think that the federal courts are going. to get involved here. I certainly don't. think the US Supreme Court's going to. get involved here. I think the question.

is, and this is what I my what I'm. watching is does the legislature now get. involved, you know, because a lot of. what the court said here was that this. was an improper delegation of authority. that essentially this board took. authority it didn't have or was given. authority that that the Can you give an. example for for instance of what the. state election board was trying to do? they didn't have jurisdiction to do it, but that the legislature might. Yeah. So, for example, they one of the rules. that was struck down is the so-called.

Dropbox ID rule, which required voters. to provide a signature and a photo ID. when dropping off absentee ballots at a. dropbox. Now, Georgia law doesn't say. anything about any of that. Uh, this was. something that the board uh of state. election board had come up with itself. and uh uh and it was struck down. Now, presumably the legislature could come. back into session now and say, "We're. going to enact that in a statute." The. same thing with respect to the handcount. rule. You know, they adopted the.

election board essentially created a. right out of whole cloth for these. elections at the county level to. institute handc counts. That was struck. down because again, not in the statute, not something the legislature wanted. Well, the legislature could uh require. handc counts under certain. circumstances. So, it's going to be a. real test now to see what does the. legislature do here because this is very. much a slap at Donald Trump. You know, the Republican National Committee. intervened in this case because it.

wanted these rules and everybody knows. they act as a proxy uh for Donald Trump. Donald Trump hates dropboxes. Donald. Trump wanted and wants the ability of. his election and IR supporters to be. able to refuse to certify elections. That's something that was a priority of. his uh priority of his uh before. And so. the question is does this legislature, you know, that has a history of enacting. voter suppression laws? Let's not forget. this is the state that brought us SB202, the big voter suppression law in uh in. you couldn't even give food or water to.

people in line, right? Does it now come. in place and say, "Okay, you know what? We're gonna now take these terrible. ideas, these voter suppression election. subversion ideas, and we're now going to. put them into Georgia law. I mean, in a. way, this is kind of a breeding ground. It's like this far-right little. inoculated breeding ground for the worst. voter suppression tactics that you could. find. And sure, while they don't have. jurisdiction, um there I'm sure are many. members of of the legislature in the GOP. who would be perfectly willing to pick.

up where they left off. Right. And. remember, this was the board that Donald. Trump took time out of his rally from. the stage to praise by name. Yeah. The. very members responsible for these. rules. So again, this is something. Donald Trump showed a lot of interest. in. Now, you could say that was before. 2024 and now he cares less. I don't buy. that. I think uh that he still cares. about the the 2026 midterms because he. doesn't want a check on his power. But,

you know, at least for the time being, kudos to uh the state supreme court of. Georgia for doing the right thing here. Uh my hat is uh hats off to the. plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit. This was actually brought by a right of. center organization initially. Uh it was. supported by by many others, but they. initially brought this. And so, you. know, good for them. And let's see. whether it sticks. Mark, let's let's. like zoom out 30,000 ft. when we see. these efforts taking place um by.

Republicans in one state, is is there is. there a situation where Democrats should. be doing something analogous. to a as a way for them to show like this. is what happens when you have when you. have, you know, a faction of kind of. like lawless sickopants attempting to. consolidate power. And if you want to do. this in Georgia, this is what you risk. in a a a state that's some blue bastion. Or is this just the kind of thing? And. the reason that I asked this is because.

like often Democrats will just good. government ourselves into obscurity. For. example, you see a bunch of Democratic. states where we have independent. redistricting commissions. Meanwhile, we've got Republican states where. they've just got they've got their. states gerrymandered to within an inch. of their life. I mean, the only reason. that there's two whole seats that are. Democratic in North Carolina is because. they couldn't figure out how to. consolidate uh two metropolitan areas on. completely opposite ends of the state. Otherwise, there would just be one. Democratic seat with every blue voter.

packed into those into that one single. district. Um, and by the way, that's not. hyperbole. That is literally what the. Republican legislative leaders said. They said the only reason why there are. two seats is because we couldn't figure. out how to gerrymander the map to make. there be one. So is there an instance. where Democrats should be fighting fire. with fire here and and kind of if offer. a warning to Republicans that if they. continue down this path, they do so at. their own peril. Yeah. Look, I think. that there is a lot that Democrats could.

be doing to improve voting rights in uh. states that are controlled by Democratic. majorities. And you know, there are. things that are very common sense that. they could do to make it easier for. young voters to register and to be able. to vote to make it easier for uh for um. uh minority voters to be able to. register. Uh and I mean, you've even. sued New York, for example, to to expand. their voting laws. Yeah. I had to sue. New York to pro to strike down a law. that prevented providing food and water.

to voters waiting in line. Now, I'd ask. you, why on earth should I have to file. a lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP of. Brooklyn against the city of New York. and the state of New York to strike down. a law that pro prohibits the handing out. of food and water in line? And by the. way, you know, before we filed the. lawsuit, I called this out publicly to. give the New York legislature a chance. to change the law. After we filed the. lawsuit, the New York legislature could. have changed the law. The city of New. York could have said, you know, we're. not going to defend the law. the state.

of New York could have said, "We're not. going to defend the law." But instead, we wound up having to litigate and. litigate and litigate. We eventually. won, and that's great, but you know, it. that that shouldn't be the way it is. And we find ourselves often times having. to pull teeth with Democratic controlled. places to simply make it easier for. voting on places like college campuses. You know, I hate to keep picking on New. York. I'm from New York originally, so I. feel like I have a little bit of of. leeway here, but I had to sue uh I think.

it was Duchess County two cycles ago. because they wouldn't put a polling. place on the on the the the campus of. Vassor College, which is a state law. There is a state law that requires this. And so, so we continue to see this in. blue states where they don't take. advantage of laws that would infranchise. all voters in general, but in particular. voters who tend to vote more democratic, voters who who tend to face more. obstacles. And so, you know, I have zero. tolerance for it. And it would sure make.

my job easier. And it would make. Democrats job easier and voting better. if you had more Democratic states. looking at their laws to try to figure. out how to improve voting. I mean, Brian, I'd put it to you this way. You. and I have come to expect that every. year Republican legislators tinker with. the law to target uh Democratic voters. to make it harder to vote. We have just. talked about them losing a landmark case. in Georgia and how they may now go back, you know, I hope they don't, but they. could go back and tinker with the law to.

make it harder uh for for people to. vote. When was the last time you heard. that Democrats every year are taking up. voting to tinker with it to make it. easier? Yeah. You know, they they kind. of do like one and done maybe, but they. don't but they don't view this as like a. central part of their mission. And it's. about time more states do. And uh you. know, anything I can do to help you uh. out there, state legislatores, you know, just reach out to Brian. He he knows how. to find me. I I'll I'll connect to you. Um look, I I I think to your exact. point, we need to be as aggressive in.

the expansion of voting rights as. Republicans are with the suppression of. it. Um and and that is that is that. means that every single year, if there's. something else we can do to make it. easier to vote um and and prevent. Republicans from enacting their goal, which is to make it harder uh to vote, then then that's exactly what we should. be doing. Um and and look, no one has. bigger been a bigger champion for that. exact uh concept than you and your team. Uh so one small step that we can all. take to elevate the voices of people who. are doing that work, especially in the. front lines where it matters, the.

courts. Um highly recommend for. everybody watching right now to. subscribe uh to Mark's YouTube channel. I'll put the link right here on the. screen and also in the post description. of this video. Completely free to be. able to do it, but helps elevate his. voice, which is exactly what we need. right now. I'm Brian Taylor Cohen. I'm. Mark Elias. This is Democracy Watch. [Music].