(单词翻译:单击)
The supreme court delivered appalling decisions in June—on abortion, guns, and environmental regulation—but the conservative supermajority is poised to strike an even greater blow against American democracy.
最高法院于6月就堕胎、枪支和环境法规宣布了骇人听闻的判决，但占绝对多数的保守派法官准备对美国民主进行更大的打击。
The justices now have the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in their sights.
大法官现在将目光投向了1965年的《选举权法案》。
On October 4, the second day of the new term, they will hear Alabama’s challenge to a federal district court’s finding that the state has to create a new majority-Black congressional district.
10月4日，也就是新任期的第二天，他们将听取阿拉巴马州对联邦地区法院裁决的质疑，该裁决要求该州必须创建一个新的黑人占多数的国会选区。
This is no ordinary case of statutory interpretation.
这不是普通的法定解释案例。
At stake is a crowning achievement of the civil-rights era, and the meaning and measure of racial equality in the hands of a Supreme Court reshaped by Donald Trump.
在唐纳德·特朗普重塑的最高法院手中，一项民权时代的伟大成就以及种族平等的意义和衡量标准岌岌可危。
Back in February, in a 5–4 vote, the Court’s conservative majority temporarily blocked the district court’s order; the majority didn’t even deign to issue an opinion explaining its reasoning.
早在2月份，在一场5比4的投票中，最高法院的保守派多数暂时阻止了地区法院的决议；大多数法官甚至没有屈尊发表意见解释其原因。
The justices’ audacious move freed Alabama to hold November’s congressional elections in districts that the lower court had declared invalid.
法官们的大胆举动使阿拉巴马州仍然在下级法院曾宣布无效的选区举行11月的国会选举。
This went too far even for one of the Voting Rights Act’s best-known critics, Chief Justice John Roberts, who dissented.
即使对《投票权法案》最著名的批评者之一、持不同意见的首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨来说，这也无法接受。
To resurrect a pungent phrase, his colleagues out-segged him.
重提那句犀利的话，他的同僚主张比他更强的种族隔离政策。
But it would be a mistake to read his dissent as a sign that he has abandoned a project that has obsessed him since his days as a young lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department.
但将他的异议解读为他放弃了自他在里根司法部担任年轻律师以来就一门心思想干的项目，那就误会了。
The most likely explanation for his dissent was that he flinched at the optics: Alabama’s request for a stay had arrived on the Court’s “shadow docket.”
对于他的异议，最可能的解释是，他在考虑到政治影响(阿拉巴马州的暂缓诉讼请求已被列入最高法院的“影子裁决”中)时退缩了。
Every court maintains an emergency docket to handle matters that can’t wait for a full hearing.
每个法院都保留一个紧急文件，用于处理等不及全面听证的事件。
But during the Trump years, the Supreme Court exploited this device to hand victories to the president without a full briefing, public argument, or even advance notice.
但在特朗普执政期间，最高法院利用这一手段，在没有全面说明、没有公开辩论、甚至没有事先通知的情况下，将胜利交给了总统。
Although Alabama is 27 percent Black, only one of its seven congressional districts—the one that includes Birmingham—has a Black majority, despite large Black populations concentrated in Mobile and in the “Black Belt” counties that stretch across the state.
尽管阿拉巴马州27%的人口是黑人，大量黑人人口集中在莫比尔和横跨全州的“黑土带”所在县，但在其七个国会选区中，包括伯明翰在内，只有一个选区黑人占多数。
It may have struck the chief justice that using the shadow docket to preserve this status quo in defiance of the lower court’s decision was an unappealing step, and an unnecessary one at that.
首席大法官可能已经意识到，无视下级法院的裁决，利用“影子裁决”维持现状的举措缺乏吸引力，也没有必要。
