ROLL CALL: Has Power Tipped in Favor of High Court?

“The court takes note of Congress and its dysfunction the same way everyone else does,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at University of California, Irvine. . . .

In the Voting Rights Act case, justices are weighing the constitutionality of part of the law Congress reauthorized in 2006 that requires areas with a history of racial discrimination to submit any proposed voting changes to the Department of Justice or a court for approval. A decision is expected before the court recesses at the end of June.

Hasen, in a soon-to-be-published law review article, examines how political polarization in Congress has changed the traditional back-and-forth between the legislative and judicial branches and notes how the balance of power has tipped in favor of the court.

Read the whole thing. The Voting Rights Act was an extraordinary remedy, occasioned by extraordinary circumstances. Those circumstances no longer exist, making the remedy’s existence questionable, too.