What We’re Reading Today: Phantom Menace
What We're Reading: a daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
The Baltimore Sun editorial board, citing Brennan Center research, calls the threat of in-person voter fraud a “phantom menace” and that a proposed voter ID bill in Maryland would “create a massive injustice in an effort to solve a problem that is all but non-existent.”
Non-violent drug offenders comprise 53% of state prisoners in Alabama, the state with the fifth highest incarceration rate in the nation. The Decatur Daily editorial board says the state needs sentencing reform.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is facing opposition to his plan to hire over 200 full-time indigent defense attorneys to replace an expensive system of contracting with private attorneys, The Springfield Republican reports.
AP: “A New York civil rights coalition is asking for a meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo after the attorney general's office said it wasn't going to investigate the New York Police Department over its monitoring of Muslims following the Sept. 11 attack.”
The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that corporations should be required to disclose their political spending to shareholders (Washington Post).
The Star Ledger editorial board goes further, saying shareholders should be allowed to vote to approve or reject political spending from corporate coffers.