The Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, removing a critical tool to combat racial discrimination in voting. See all of the Center's recent resources on the VRA and ideas on how to move forward after the Court's decision.
Velazquez v. Legal Services Corporation: The Supreme Court Ruling
In October 2000 the Brennan Center argued before the United States Supreme Court, on behalf of a coalition of lawyers, indigent clients and New York City officeholders, that Congress violated the First Amendment when it authorized lawyers funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to represent the poor in welfare benefits cases but then barred them from challenging welfare reform laws.
Statement by Deborah Goldberg, Democracy Program Director of Brennan Center, in response to serious misrepresentations of both the Centers position and the underlying literature as reported in Charter Revision Commission Staff Report, Dated August 13, 2003, as pertains to impact of nonpartisan elections on democracy in New York City.
J. J. Gass, Associate Counsel at the Brennan Center, focuses his remarks on the subject of campaign finance in the context of judicial elections. The concept of public funding for judicial campaigns is strongly supported, but cautions remain about how public funding should be implemented.
Report in response to New York State implementation plan for HAVA, contending that unless the law is properly implemented there is great peril that decades of long fought reforms to enfranchise the state’s diverse populations will be thwarted at the polls.
Statement of Deborah Goldberg, Director, Democracy Program, Brennan Center on nonpartisan elections in New York City, concluding that the benefits of nonpartisan elections are unproven, and the risks are great. The limited studies now available show that nonpartisan elections depress overall voter participation, with disproportionate negative effects on people of color, low-income communities, and less educated voters.
Deborah Goldberg, Director of Democracy Program for the Brennan Center, concludes in her remarks that pressure should be exerted for real elections with real candidates rather than elections controlled by political parties; to insist upon transparency throughout the selection process; and to strive to reduce the influence of money on elections for the bench.
