Politics and views in the United States.

Biden proposes reforms to SCOTUS, to praise from union and reproductive rights groups. A lawsuit challenging partisan gerrymandering in South Carolina goes to the state Supreme Court, and Gen Z voters seem to be surging onto the rolls.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

In recent years, extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long-established civil rights principles and protections.

President Joe Biden unveiling proposed Supreme Court reforms at a civil rights anniversary in Austin, Texas.

He's calling for term-limiting justices and enforceable ethical standards.

In an op-ed for Wall Street Journal, Biden also argued against a court decision granting criminal immunity for presidents.

Court critics are hailing the plan.

Union officials say the current court is being corrupted in favoring corporations and wealthy individuals.

And Mini Timor-Ladu with Reproductive Freedom for All says the court's Dobbs decision is hurting people every day by allowing strict abortion bans to get in the way of needed health care.

I was just joined this morning.

Every day we see the consequences of that decision play out as real people are put into horrifying and dangerous situations.

But GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson is promising to block the reforms, saying Democrats want to undermine the court because they disagree with recent decisions.

And congressional Republicans are comparing them to moves against the courts by the dictator of Venezuela.

Maria Salazar is a Republican from Florida.

That is outrageous, and that goes against the system, the American exceptionality that we all enjoy.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging South Carolina's congressional districts for partisan gerrymandering is headed to that state's Supreme Court.

Paul Bowers with the state's ACLU says they want the court to enforce protections against gerrymandering already in law and use them to invalidate the current congressional maps.

State lawmakers here have said repeatedly that they drew congressional maps for partisan gain.

And not only is that an admission of cheating, but it violates the state constitution's guarantee of free and open elections.

In Wisconsin, a judge has rejected a conservative lawsuit aimed at changing aspects of the state's absentee voting process.

And the deadline for Mississippi's mail-in ballot has survived a Republican federal court challenge.

The state's deadline, set in a 2020 law, allows the counting of mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, but received up to five days later.

Nationally, there are signs that young people continue to register in big numbers since Biden bowed out in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Vote.org says a significant majority of the 100,000 who have signed up in the last week are between 18 and 34 years old, with a lot of 18-year-olds registering for the first time.

CEO Andrea Haley says many in Texas, California and Florida cite the defense of democracy.

"None of us can show up to safeguard our democracy alone.

We need to really create community around it.

And to do that, we need to register to vote."

Polls continue to show momentum for Harris, with her closing an advantage Trump had developed over Biden after the debate.

But most analysts still see the race as statistically tied.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.