3638 - Death of the Voting Rights Act; The Coming Oil Shock w/ Rory Johnston, Ari Berman

The Majority Report with Sam Seder delivers a harrowing examination of two converging crises in the United States: a historic oil shock stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the near-total dismantling of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. Rory Johnston, oil market researcher, explains that the closure—orchestrated by a sudden reversal of Project Freedom—has created the largest supply shock in history, with global oil inventories down by a billion barrels. Despite the U.S. shale industry’s short-term profitability, the market remains paralyzed by uncertainty, volatility, and the Trump administration’s repeated false promises that the crisis will end soon. Meanwhile, Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones, details how the Supreme Court has systematically dismantled the Voting Rights Act through three major rulings: the 2013 Shelby decision, the 2021 erosion of Section 2, and a 2026 ruling that effectively nullifies the 15th Amendment by requiring proof of intentional racial discrimination. This decision allows states to redraw districts mid-election, canceling votes already cast in Louisiana and other states, and enabling widespread racial gerrymandering under the guise of partisan advantage. Berman warns this is a deliberate rollback of civil rights progress, returning the South to a post-Reconstruction era of white supremacy under legal pretense. The episode concludes with a dire warning that the Supreme Court has become an instrument of partisan power, not justice, and that reforming the Court must be the Democratic Party’s top priority.