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What We're Reading Today
By Molly Alarcon – 05/22/12
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.
Jesse Jackson cites the Brennan Center’s research in a plea not to let “the attacks on voting rights succeed” (Chicago Sun-Times).
Adam Liptak of the New York Times reports that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a Bush-era law allowing the government to intercept international phone calls and emails originating from people suspected of having ties to terrorist networks.
California State Senator Mark Leno of Marin County and San Francisco has introduced a bill to classify simple drug possession as a misdemeanor instead of a felony, a policy change that would reduce California’s prison population, help low-level offenders find jobs and remain employed, and bring California in line with 13 other states that have made this important change (AP).
Jeffrey Toobin blogs at the New Yorker about the continued need for the Voting Rights Act.
Corporations are increasingly facing pressure to divulge political spending to shareholders, The Washington Post reports.
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/21/12
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 Washington Post highlights the Brennan Center’s amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court regarding the potential review of a Montana Supreme Court decision upholding a cap on corporate political spending.
Tampa Bay Times columnist Robyn Blumner asks if the Florida Secretary of State’s sudden interest in purging the state’s voter rolls of 180,000 alleged non-citizens “is a pure effort to clean up the voter rolls or is there an element of suppressing minority votes?” Read the Brennan Center’s Myrna Pérez on the matter (“Florida Should Avoid Misdeeds of the Past”).
LA Times: “The Supreme Court, after a four-year break from terrorism issues, is set to decide as soon as Monday whether to again take up constitutional challenges to George W. Bush-era anti-terrorism laws involving wiretapping and the Guantanamo prisoners.”
Conservatives and civil rights advocates are coming together to oppose exorbitant phone fees for prisoners.
Over 2,000 people who were wrongly convicted of major crimes were exonerated in the past two and a half decades, according to a new database compiled by a team of academics. "We know there are many more that we haven't found," the editor of the new registry told the AP.
The New York Times editorial board praises DC Circuit Judge Tatel for his opinion affirming the constitutionality of an important provision of the Voting Rights Act. The Brennan Center released a statement applauding the ruling as well.
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/18/12
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.
Yesterday, House Democrats introduced the Voter Empowerment Act (HR 5799), which includes the Brennan Center’s proposals for Voter Registration Modernization and provisions based on the Democracy Restoration Act, which would restore the right to vote in federal elections for individuals with criminal convictions. Read coverage of the press conference and bill introduction at: The Hill, CBS News, CNN, Roll Call, and The Grio.
The Brennan Center’s Adam Skaggs in Politico on the Montana campaign spending case reaching the Supreme Court: “Montana’s history demonstrates the corruption that blooms when corporations can spend without limit to capture government. The state’s history demonstrates again and again why the anti-corruption law should stand. Indeed, a close review of the case shows that the court would be well-served to revisit — and substantially narrow — Citizens United.”
Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, describes a number of ways governments squeeze the poor, citing Brennan Center research to describe the punitive court fees and fines increasingly used against the poorest among us (Huffington Post).
Senator Leahy (Chairman of the Judiciary Committee) takes on controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio: “A U.S. senator has asked federal authorities to consider seeking repayment of federal aid to Maricopa County if they determine that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office used tax dollars from Washington to detain people whose civil rights the sheriff's office is accused of violating” (AP).
Echoing findings by the Brennan Center about the importance of legal counsel in foreclosure proceedings, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has released two reports stressing the benefit of having HUD-approved housing counselors help struggling homeowners.
The economic argument for equal rights: “A draft paper by four U.S. economists makes the strong empirical case that [social and legal equality for women and minorities] made the economy more productive. Chang-Tai Hsieh, Erik Hurst, Charles Jones and Peter Klenow argue that as much as 20 percent of the growth in productivity in the United States over the past 50 years can be attributed to expanded opportunities for women and blacks” (New York Times).
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/16/12
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.
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, counsel to the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, writes in the Huffington Post about how the conviction of Tarek Mehanna, an American citizen who became involved with terrorists, puts our First Amendment liberties in question.
“Advocacy groups spending millions of dollars to influence the 2012 election now face the prospect of having to reveal their secret donors, after a federal appellate court panel refused to block a lower-court order requiring the disclosure” – Los Angeles Times.
The Huffington Post counts down the top 5 voting law changes “that make people angry,” citing Brennan Center research on the detrimental impact voter ID laws and limitations on voter registration drives can have.
The New York Daily News editorial board says “I told you so” with respect to malfunctioning voting machines in the Bronx. The Brennan Center has been active in bringing this problem to the attention of elections officials and the general public.
Dafna Linzer at ProPublica profiles the failure of the Department of Justice’s pardon office to obtain justice for one man, Clarence Aaron, and systemic problems in the office that could be fixed by creating a bipartisan review panel that would report directly to the president.
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/10/12
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.
In the Arizona Republic, the Brennan Center’s Meghna Philip and Mark Ladov urge Arizona lawmakers to use their state’s portion of the giant foreclosure settlement as intended: for foreclosure prevention.
House Republicans introduced a few amendments to a spending bill last night aimed at preventing the Department of Justice from enforcing the Voting Rights Act. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights hero who suffered severe injuries fighting for the right to vote, stood up against one measure on the floor and defeated it. Unfortunately, another amendment passed.
AP: “Federal authorities said Wednesday that they plan to sue Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Latinos.”
Reuters reports on the NYPD’s discriminatory stop-and-frisk practices: “The New York Police Department performed more frisk searches of young black men in 2011 than the total number of young black men living in New York City.”
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy asks in Guernica magazine, “Watergate led to a grassroots effort to clean up Washington. In the wake of Citizens United, and with the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, is it time to act again?”
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/09/12
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.
Sad news today: civil rights champion and former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach has passed away.
USA Today describes the challenges the Obama campaign faces with the slew of restrictive voting measures in place in states across the country, citing research by the Brennan Center on their discriminatory impact.
Noah Feldman asks of the KSM 9/11 military commission, “After nearly a decade of Supreme Court decisions affording rights to Guantanamo detainees and rejecting proposed military commissions to try them, it would be reasonable to ask: How did we get here? Why are we on the brink of a trial of the century that seems unlikely to satisfy the most basic demands of criminal justice?”
The House of Representatives wisely voted down two amendments to a major spending bill to gut the Legal Services Corporation, an essential funding source for providers of legal assistance to poor Americans (The Hill).
Some good news: “A bill in Ohio to repeal a contentious new election law in the presidential battleground state is headed to the governor's desk” - AP
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/07/12
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.
Connecticut lawmakers passed a measure to allow for Election Day voter registration and, starting in 2014, online voter registration.
The Brooklyn Ink interviews the Brennan Center’s Mark Ladov on the extant foreclosure crisis for a feature article on Brooklyn residents experiencing the long and grueling process in New York state, often with inadequate legal assistance.
A Muslim woman who experienced religious harassment at work and was fired after she complained will receive a $5 million award from her former employer, AT&T (Reuters).
The Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that criminal defendants have the right to an attorney, even if they cannot afford one. Two prominent Tennessee Public Defenders write in the Memphis Commercial Appeal that persistent inadequate funding for two major metropolitan areas undermines this right to access to justice.
The New York Times editorial board calls public financing for presidential campaigns an “idea worth saving,” and highlights a proposal to raise the funding level to make it more appealing to major candidates.
Senate Democrats held a field hearing in Cleveland, Ohio today about the state’s new voting law that limits early voting, eliminates a requirement for poll workers to direct voters to their correct voting location, and makes it harder to vote absentee.
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By Molly Alarcon – 05/04/12
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 Washington Post reports that voter registration is down for African Americans and Hispanics since 2008, due mostly to the foreclosure crisis and damaged economy, which has forced millions of voters into new living situations since 2008. One in 4 voters wrongly assumes their voter registration transfers with them when they move. The Brennan Center’s proposal for Voter Registration Modernization would fix this very problem.
The Brennan Center’s Sundeep Iyer blogs at the Huffington Post about voter skepticism of our political system—from Super PACs to voting systems—and how we can improve our democracy.
The New York Times editorial board bemoans a recent 9th Circuit ruling shielding former Bush Administration John Yoo from a torture lawsuit by an American citizen. John Yoo defends himself in the Wall Street Journal, saying even the 9th Circuit could see the lawsuit was “frivolous.”
African Americans and Hispanics hold a tiny fraction of federal judicial clerkships, prestigious and door-opening positions in the legal world, and their representation has declined in the past decade (Think Progress).
Jonathan D. Salant at Bloomberg Businessweek calls the FEC “a toothless watchdog for a $6 billion dollar election.”
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