It’s a rule the Supreme Court created in Purcell v. Gonzalez (2006). It says:

Courts should avoid changing election rules close to an election because it might confuse voters.

This principle has been used to:

• block fixes to illegal maps
• freeze lower‑court rulings
• allow elections to proceed under maps already found to violate the Voting Rights Act

In other words:

If a map is illegal but the election is near, the Supreme Court often says: “Use the illegal map anyway — we’ll deal with it later.”

This is why you see Black districts eliminated or weakened right before elections, even when courts agree the maps are discriminatory.

me and AI … let me know if you think it’s not accurate and cite the source for the correction if needed

1264 – King Henry III was captured by his brother in law Simon deMontfort at the Battle of Lewes in France.

1509 – In the Battle of Agnadello, French defeated Venitians in Northern Italy.

1607 – An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport went ashore at Jamestown, Virginia. The group had arrived at the location the day before. This became the first permanent English colony in America.

1610 – French King Henri IV (Henri de Navarre) was assassinated by a fanatical monk, François Ravillac.

1643 – Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

1727 – Thomas Gainsborough was born. He was an English painter.

1787 – Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.

1796 – The first smallpox vaccination was given by Edward Jenner.

1804 – William Clark set off the famous expedition from Camp Dubois. A few days later, in St. Louis, Meriwether Lewis joined the group. The group was known as the “Corps of Discovery.”

1811 – Paraguay gained independence from Spain.

1853 – Gail Borden applied for a patent for condensed milk.

1862 – The chronograph was patented by Adolphe Nicole.

1874 – McGill University and Harvard met at Cambridge, MA, for the first college football game to charge admission.

1878 – The name Vaseline was registered by Robert A. Chesebrough.

1879 – Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Telephone Company of Europe.

1897 – “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time. It was at a ceremony where a statue of George Washington was unveiled.

1897 – Guglielmo Marconi made the first communication by wireless telegraph.

1913 – The Rockefeller Foundation was created by John D. Rockefeller with a gift of $100,000,000.

1935 – The Philippines ratified an independence agreement.

1940 – The Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany.

1942 – The Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1942 – “Lincoln Portrait” by Aaron Copland was performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

1942 – The British, while retreating from Burma, reached India.

1948 – Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independent State of Israel as British rule in Palestine came to an end.

1955 – The Warsaw Pact, a Easter European mutual-defense treaty, was signed in Poland by eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union.

1961 – A bus carrying Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.

1967 – Mickey Mantle hit his 500th homerun.

1969 – Jacqueline Susann’s second novel, “The Love Machine,” was published by Simon and Schuster.

1973 – Skylab One was launched into orbit around Earth as the first U.S. manned space station.

1975 – U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia. About 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation.

1980 – U.S. President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.

1985 – Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s restaurant became the first fast-food business museum. It is located in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1988 – In the Andean village of Cayara, Peru’s military was involved in a massacre of at least 26 peasants.

1992 – Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev addressed members of the U.S. Congress, appealing to them to pass a bill to aid the people of the former Soviet Union.

1996 – A tornado hit 80 villages in nothern Bangladesh. More than 440 people were killed.

1998 – The Associated Press marked its 150th anniversary.

1998 – The final episode of the TV series “Seinfeld” aired after nine years on NBC.

1999 – North Korea returned the remains of six U.S. soldiers that had been killed during the Korean War.

1999 – Jess Marlow received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2005 – The art exhibit “Gumby and Friends: The First 50 Years” opened at the Lynn House Gallery in Antioch, CA.

on-this-day.com

If the courts consistently applied precedent, a lot of this would already be stopped! Thing is, it feels like SCOTUS stopped following it!

Guess what, precedent isn’t gone — it’s dormant!

Preclearance came from Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It required certain states and counties — mostly in the South — to get federal approval before changing any voting rules.

This included changes like:

• redistricting maps
• voter ID laws
• polling place closures
• early voting cuts
• registration rules
• ballot access changes

They could not take effect until the federal government said:

“This change does not discriminate against minority voters.”

This was a proactive protection — it stopped discrimination before it happened.

What preclearance prevented

Before 2013, preclearance blocked:

• strict voter ID laws
• racially gerrymandered maps
• polling place closures in Black neighborhoods
• cuts to early voting
• discriminatory registration rules

The Department of Justice blocked over 1,000 discriminatory changes between 1965 and 2013.

Without preclearance, many of those changes would have gone into effect.

What happened after preclearance was removed

Within hours of the Shelby ruling:

• Texas implemented a voter ID law previously blocked as discriminatory.
• North Carolina passed a sweeping voting law that a court later said targeted Black voters “with almost surgical precision.”
• States began closing polling places in minority communities.
• Redistricting maps like Tennessee’s became far easier to pass.

This is why you’re seeing the pattern you described — and why it feels like it’s spreading.

Who had to follow preclearance?

The areas covered were determined by Section 4(b), which used data on:

• literacy tests
• voter suppression history
• low minority turnout

This included states like:

• Alabama
• Georgia
• Mississippi
• Louisiana
• South Carolina
• Virginia
• Texas
• Arizona

And many counties in other states.

These were places with long, documented histories of suppressing Black voters.

Here are 11 things you should know about the MOVE Philadelphia bombing

On May 13, 1985, a bomb was dropped on a row house in Philadelphia, unleashing a relentless fire that eventually burned down 61 houses, killed 11 people (including five children), and injured dozens.

The fire department stood by idly. The Philadelphia Police Department did the same. The fire raged on, swallowing up home after home until more than 200 were without shelter.

It’s a shameful part of recent American history that’s somehow been buried under for years and other destructions that have fallen on the city of Philadelphia. NewsOne decided to take a trip back in time to explore what happened the day America bombed its own people.

– The MOVE Organization is a Philadelphia-based Black liberation group that preached revolution and advocated the return to a natural lifestyle. They lived communally and vowed to lead a life uninterrupted by the government, police, or technology. They were passionate supporters of animal rights. Members adopted vegan diets and the surname “Africa.” Often times they would engage in public demonstrations related to issues they deemed important.

– MOVE did, however, have a past with the police. Since its inception in 1972, the group was looked at as a threat to the Philadelphia Police Department.  In 1978, police raided their Powelton Village homes and as a result, one police officer died after being shot in the head. Nine MOVE members were arrested, charged with third-degree murder, and sent to prison. They argued that the police officer was shot in the back of his head on his way into the home, challenging the claim that he was shot by members inside the house. Eventually, the group relocated to their infamous house on 6221 Osage Street.

There are differing reports about the group and how troublesome they actually were. According to the AP, neighbors complained about their house on Osage, which was barricaded with plywood and allegedly contained a multitude of weapons. It has been said that the group built a giant wooden bunker on the roof and used a bullhorn to “scream obscenities at all hours of the night,” angering those living in nearby row houses. Eventually, they turned to city officials for help, which put into motion the events of May 13, 1985.

On that day, armed police, the fire department, and city officials gathered at the house in an attempt to clear it out and arrest MOVE members who had been indicted for crimes like parole violation and illegal possession of firearms. When police tossed tear gas canisters into the home, MOVE members fired back. In turn, the police discharged their guns.

– Eventually, a police helicopter flew over the home and dropped two bombs on the row house. A ferocious blaze followed.

– Witnesses and MOVE members say that when members started to run out of the burning structure to escape a fiery death, police continued to fire their weapons.

– The fire department delayed putting out the flames. After the blaze, they claimed they didn’t want to put their men in harm’s way, because MOVE members were still firing their guns. But MOVE members and witnesses say the wait was deliberate.

– In the end, 11 people, including MOVE’s founder John Africa, were dead. Five children died in the home.

– This is the only child survivor (see picture below). His name is Birdie Africa, but it was later changed to Michael Ward. He ran out of the burning house naked and covered in flames. He survived his third-degree burns and went on to live a normal life, although he was scarred forever by the lifelong burns on his abdomen, arms, and face.

– Michael Ward was found dead on Friday, Sept. 20, 2013 in the jacuzzi aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean. He was on vacation with his family. Initial autopsy reports say he drowned.

– In the end, no one from the city government was criminally charged.

SOURCE: AP, Philly, Independent research | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

image: AP  and vpr.org

Black History Month