June 27, 2023 – You’re reading The Briefing, Michael Waldman’s weekly newsletter. Click here to receive it every week in your inbox. Sanity prevailed today at the U.S. Supreme Court. In Moore v. Harper, six justices issued a near total rejection of the “independent state legislature theory” — a bogus and ahistorical reading of the Constitution that would have […]
Brennan Center for Justice
Posted inLife
Books: The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America
June 6, 2023 – In The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, Brennan Center President Michael Waldman examines the most consequential Supreme Court term in decades and argues that the Court overreached. Its ruling in Bruen radically loosened gun safety laws amid an epidemic of mass shootings. West Virginia v. EPA hobbled the government’s ability to fight climate change and other environmental […]
Posted inUS
New Senate Appropriations Bill Includes Reform to Electoral Count Act, $75 Million for Election Security
December 20, 2022 – The Senate just released an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2023. It includes the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act and $75 million in funding for election security and infrastructure. Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, had the following reaction: “The appropriations bill just released by […]
Posted inUS
Biden Administration Must Center Civil Rights in the Fight Against White Supremacy
WASHINGTON, December 1, 2022 —The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law today released a policy paper detailing strategies to address longstanding problems with U.S. counterterrorism policy, its harms to civil rights and civil liberties, and its failure to address white supremacist violence. The paper, “Confronting White […]
Posted inUS
Brennan Center Reacts to Senate Cloture Vote on John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
November 3, 2021 – Today Senate Republicans, with the exception of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), voted to block debate on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and prevent the bill from receiving a floor vote. Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, had this reaction: With the exception of Senator […]
Posted inUS
Civil Rights Organizations and an Election Official File Challenge to Texas Anti-Voter Legislation
A voting bill that will make it harder for Texans, particularly voters of color, to cast their ballots is unconstitutional and violates federal voting rights law because it diminishes access to the ballot box, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court. MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), the Brennan Center for […]
Posted inUS
New Analysis: Efforts in Four States Follow Arizona in Proposed and Ongoing Partisan “Audits” of 2020 Election
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Protect Democracy, and the R Street Institute today published Partisan Election Review Efforts in Five States, a look at efforts to conduct so-called “audits” of 2020 election results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In each state, election officials have already conducted post-election audits without any findings […]
Posted inUS
Supreme Court Upholds Discriminatory AZ Voting Laws, Weakens Voting Rights Act
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee that two racially discriminatory Arizona voting laws do not violate the Voting Rights Act or the U.S. Constitution, overturning a Ninth Circuit ruling. The ruling relies on a narrow reading of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that will make it more difficult to challenge […]
Posted inUS
One in Three Election Officials Report Feeling Unsafe Because of Their Job
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law and the Bipartisan Policy Center today published a report on the state of the election official profession and the toll of the unprecedented attacks on these officials’ authority, credibility, and personal safety that surged in the run-up to the 2020 election and have not stopped. The report […]
Posted inUS
Civil Rights Groups, Civic Organizations, Tribal and Local Governments Reach Broad Resolution in Census Lawsuit
April 22, 2021 – Civil rights groups, civic organizations, and tribal and local governments have secured and presented to the court for approval a final resolution in the federal lawsuit that stopped the federal government from severely shortening the 2020 Census during the pandemic and skewing its results. The Trump administration had sought to cut […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Michael Waldman: The For the People Act would be the most significant democracy reform in over half a century
March 17, 2021 – Today the U.S. Senate introduced the For the People Act, S. 1, which includes reforms to voting, redistricting, campaign finance, and government ethics. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law helped develop many of the policies in the legislation – such as automatic voter registration, the restoration of voting rights […]
Posted inUS
Brennan Center statement on Florida officials’ plans to remove people with past convictions from Florida’s voter roll
Tallahassee, Fla. October 16, 2020 – With less than 18 days to go until the 2020 general election, the Florida Division of Elections made plans to remove people with past convictions who owe legal financial obligations from Florida’s voter rolls, in direct violation of the state’s 30-day notice period. The American Civil Liberties Union […]
Posted inUS
Federal Court Rejects Attack on Drop Boxes in Pennsylvania
October 12, 2020 – A federal judge has upheld the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s mail ballot drop boxes, county residency restriction for poll watchers, and other voting rules, rejecting claims of “voter fraud” as too “speculative” and supported by “scant” evidence. The ruling, in Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar, will ensure that eligible Pennsylvania voters […]
Posted inUS
Federal Appeals Court Affirms Wealth-Based Barriers to Voting in Florida
ATLANTA, Sept. 11, 2020 — A federal appeals court today upheld a Florida law that created wealth-based hurdles to voting. The decision denies voting rights to hundreds of thousands of people with past felony convictions. The case, Jones v DeSantis, concerned Senate Bill 7066 (SB7066), which was signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis […]
Posted inUS
Explainer: Why a Vote-by-Mail Option Is Necessary
April 10, 2020 – As the coronavirus ravages the country, presidential primary elections have been among the casualties. At least 16 states have already delayed some elections or allowed citizens to vote by mail with extended deadlines. The latter move has helped renew a contentious debate in Washington, DC, and across the country: should a vote-by-mail option […]
Posted inUS
Trump Administration Admits Mistakes in Distorted Terrorism Report But Refuses to Retract It
Washington, DC January 7, 2019 – In a response to separate administrative appeals filed by watchdog groups Democracy Forward, Muslim Advocates, Protect Democracy, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and others, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) admitted that its joint terrorism report with the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) contained a number of misleading assertions that […]
Posted inUS
More than 100 Groups Call on Government to Stop Using Information from Children to Deport their Family Members
Nov. 28, 2018 – The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University of Law, the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law and the National Immigrant Justice Center, along with 109 groups, sent a letter today to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) demanding the agencies stop […]
Posted inUS
Bipartisan Task Force Unveils Proposals to Strengthen Government Ethics, Rule of Law
Oct. 2, 2018 – The National Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy – a group of former public servants and policy experts housed at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law – today laid out a vision for strengthening government ethics and the rule of law. Their first report includes specific proposals, […]
Posted inUS
Brennan Center Sues Justice Department Over Terrorism Prosecution Data
New York, N.Y. Aug. 9, 2018 – The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law filed a lawsuit this week against the Justice Department after it failed to turn over key information about terrorism-related prosecutions. The information is needed to provide context for President Trump’s misleading assertion that the vast majority of people convicted of terrorism […]
Posted inUS
New Report: Increase in Voter Purges Threatens Ballot Access in November
New York, N.Y. July 20, 2018 – In the wake of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted federal protections for voters, a quiet threat to voting rights has grown — purges of voter registration rolls. And it’s a trend that could silence millions of voices at the polls this November, according to a new report […]