The Voting Rights Agenda Must Include Felon Reenfranchisement

7/10/17  //  Commentary

As disenfranchisement and voter suppression efforts are on the rise, one partial response is reenfranchisement.

Nancy Leong

Sturm College of Law

Kobach’s 'Election Integrity' Commission Is Founded on a Big Lie to the American Public

7/7/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

The commission is not truly bipartisan and is based on false assertions of widespread voter fraud.

Danielle Lang

The Campaign Legal Center

President Trump’s Election Commission Has Already Violated Federal Law

7/5/17  //  Commentary

Larry Schwartztol of Protect Democracy on how Kris Kobach's request for voter information violated federal law.

Take Care

All Your Voter Data Are Belong To Us

6/30/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Kris Kobach just asked for help building a national voter file in two weeks. That’s massively irresponsible. And it might well be illegal.

Justin Levitt

Loyola Law School

Versus Trump: Where There's A Gil... (On Partisan Gerrymandering)

6/29/17  //  Commentary

On this week’s episode of Versus Trump, we discuss a lurking issue with opposing Trump in upcoming elections: partisan gerrymandering. Charlie and Easha take a close look at the case of Gil v. Whitford, a case the Supreme Court recently announced it will take up next fall. In Gil, the Supreme Court may boldly announce a new rule that might seriously curb partisan gerrymandering—or the Court may entirely stop courts from being able to hear these cases at all. Listen now!

Charlie Gerstein

Gerstein Harrow LLP

Easha Anand

San Francisco

The Commission to Round Up the Usual Suspects

5/12/17  //  Commentary

The President's Commission On Voter Fraud Is Not Designed To Seek Data. Instead, The Commission Has Preordained Conclusions It Will Recommend.

Justin Levitt

Loyola Law School

Kris Kobach is a Menace to Democracy. Boycott his Vote-Rigging Commission.

5/11/17  //  Quick Reactions

By Jed Shugerman. Trump is using the Comey firestorm as a smoke screen for a potentially more dangerous move: appointing Kris Kobach vice chair of a new “election integrity” commission, with Mike Pence as chair. Kobach will make it a voter-suppression/vote rigging commission, fomenting anti-immigrant and racist fears.

Take Care

Facts Matter—Even if the Sessions Department of Justice Doesn’t Realize It

4/26/17  //  Commentary

Just 100 days into the Trump Administration—the Administration that gave rise to the concept of #AlternativeFacts—there is reason to worry that facts don’t matter to the Justice Department now led by Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.

Brianne J. Gorod

Constitutional Accountability Center

Echoes of History in Objections to Federal Enforcement of Voting Rights

4/21/17  //  Commentary

A letter about how to fix DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has some interesting parallels to a recent voting rights dissent.

Leah Litman

Michigan Law School

Information Wars Part I: The Challenge To The Census

4/13/17  //  Commentary

The Trump administration has enacted several policies to conceal, subvert, or manipulate information. It has retracted a proposal to add LGBTQ identification to the U.S. census and eliminated LGBTQ identification from HHS surveys. These policies and others attempt to deny the existence of a problem by disappearing the (inconvenient) facts.

Leah Litman

Michigan Law School

Helen Klein Murillo

Harvard Law School '17

District Court Holds that Texas Discriminated Against Minority Voters, Again.

4/11/17  //  Quick Reactions

Cutting-edge analysis by Gerry Hebert and Danielle Lang of yesterday's ruling that the controversial Texas Voter ID law was enacted with racially discriminatory intent.

Danielle Lang

The Campaign Legal Center

Resisting Calls for Illegal Hiring Practices at DOJ’s Civil Rights Division

4/11/17  //  Commentary

Even in these strange and trying times, we would like to think that our Attorney General will follow the law while staffing the division of DOJ charged with realizing the Constitution’s promise of a democracy that’s worth a damn—one open to all citizens, regardless of the color of their skin.

Leah Litman

Michigan Law School

A Department of Justice, But For Whom?

4/7/17  //  Commentary

A letter about how to fix DOJ’s Civil Rights Division simultaneously maintains that we live in a “post-racial world” and urges the Division to take measures that will disenfranchise people of color.

Leah Litman

Michigan Law School

States Can Require Financial Disclosure by Presidential Candidates to Safeguard Electoral Transparency

4/6/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Many states are considering bills requiring future federal presidential candidates to release tax returns, or comparable information, in order to be listed on the ballot. Such requirements are good policy and should be upheld under the Constitution.

Danielle Lang

The Campaign Legal Center

Arresting the Deterioration of Democracy

3/31/17  //  Commentary

Troubling signs abound for American constitutional democracy. It isn't (yet) too late to halt the decline. But that will require the creation and implementation of a robust democracy agenda.

Daniel P. Tokaji

Ohio State, Moritz College of Law