Past Top Stories
A collection of all the lead stories and graphics once featured on the homepage, this section chronicles some of the major issues the Brennan Center has been involved in over the past few years.
In Wisconsin, some politicians are trying to jump the gun on redistricting, attempting to rush through a bill ahead of recall elections in August. To shorten the timeframe, they're even willing to change the basic ground rules and repeal a law mandating that state legislative redistricting occur after municipalities are done redrawing their own local ward lines. As states work their way to new congressional, state, and local district lines, the Brennan Center will continue to monitor the action and push for more responsive, deliberative and transparent redistricting processes. Read our complete Citizen's Guide to Redistricting, or learn how redistricting happens in your state.
The Brennan Center scored a big victory for public health programs in the fight against AIDS. In AOSI v. USAID, a federal appeals court ruled that the government "cannot force partners in its international fight against AIDS to denounce prostitution as a condition for receiving funding." Under the challenged requirement, independent humanitarian and public health groups were forced to promote the government’s message and censor even their privately funded speech regarding the most effective ways to engage high-risk groups in HIV prevention. Read the Associated Press and New York Law Journal coverage.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled to throw out a provision of Arizona's public campaign financing system, but left the whole of public financing intact. "This is the latest recent example where the Court has struck down longstanding laws designed to curb the corrupting role of large campaign contributions," said Brennan Center Executive Director Michael Waldman. "After the Court's ruling, one key fact is clear. Public financing remains Constitutionally strong." The Brennan Center, with its pro bono partner, defended the law in front of the Court. Read a media roundup.
A flood of new, highly restrictive voter ID bills has swept legislatures across the country this year, and six states have passed and enacted them so far, according to USA Today. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne called the wave of anti-voter legislation “the civil rights issue of our moment.” The Center is tracking the progress of these bills and will be monitoring them into the 2012 elections. For more, read our recent study on the high cost of implementing these policies.
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to issue a decision that could make it more difficult for ordinary citizens to compete with big donors in elections. In McComish v. Bennett, the high court will rule on public campaign financing for the first time in three decades. As soon as the verdict is announced, the Brennan Center will host a conference call with the media for reaction and analysis. Watch Michael Waldman discuss the case on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown. Read more on McComish here.
President Obama should sign an executive order to require federal contractors to make their campaign spending public. Opponents of campaign finance reform are in fact opposing the very reform that they once supported, says the Brennan Center’s Michael Waldman. “Disclosure – once worthy, even boring – is now deemed scary,” writes Waldman in Politico. “Yet another newly discovered threat to liberty.” A group of lawmakers recently wrote the president urging him to sign the proposed order. Read a Brennan Center analysis and op-ed on why President Obama should sign the order.
The 9/11 attacks dramatically altered the nation’s response to threats from terrorism. One of the most significant changes was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly a decade after the attacks, what lessons have we learned from our efforts? How does Osama bin Laden’s death alter the terrain? And what can we expect in the next decade? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently discussed these issues at a Brennan Center event. See video, photos and a transcript.
After years of waiting, and nearly a decade after the Brennan Center's seminal report on Albany dysfunction, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders agreed on an ethics reform package that "lays the foundation for the renewal of New York's government." Key measures include a unified ethics commission to conduct investigations and strengthened income disclosure laws for elected officials. Many aspects of the package were discussed and promoted in the Brennan Center's recent research and policy work on repairing New York State government.
The New York Times reported this weekend on the new restrictions on voting that are being pushed in state legislatures across the nation. The measures have advanced in at least thirteen states in the last two months, including Florida, a key swing state in federal elections. These restrictions have included measures like strict photo ID requirements, tightening of change-of-address rules, and even mandatory registration of volunteers involved in voter registration drives. Critics argue these policies are not only ineffective, but also make it harder for seniors, students and other vulnerable citizens to vote. Read our round-up of the new roadblocks to voting across the country.
Nevada emerges as a bright spot among other states currently enacting restrictive voting laws. A Brennan Center-supported overhaul of Nevada's byzantine and unfair felony disenfranchisement laws has passed both houses of the state legislature with bipartisan support. Under current law, tens of thousands of law-abiding, taxpaying Nevadans are denied the right to vote because of criminal convictions in their past. The proposed reforms will simplify and streamline Nevada's laws to restore voting rights to those who have successfully completed their sentence.
Gov. Rick Scott recently signed a new election law making it far harder to register and vote in the Sunshine State. The misguided bill disproportionately affects low-income and minority citizens, renters, and students. Meanwhile, the bill penalizes registration groups, from boy scout troops to the League of Women Voters, for their attempts to bring more eligible voters into our democracy. These changes come on the heels of the governor’s successful push to deny the right to vote to nearly a million Floridians who have served their time and are now living and working in the community.
The Brennan Center has joined a group of civil rights organizations to defend New York's new law allocating people in prison to their home communities for redistricting. The group, representing three nonprofit organizations and fifteen voters from across the state, filed a motion to intervene in Little v. LATFOR, the case challenging the new law. Under the prior policy, often called prison-based gerrymandering, people in prison were allocated to the districts where they are incarcerated, systematically distorting New Yorkers' representation in the state legislature for decades and diluting the votes of citizens across the state. Learn more about this issue and the case, or read our press release.
Florida's legislature passed a new election law that makes it far harder to register and vote in the Sunshine State. The misguided bill disproportionately affects low-income and minority citizens, renters, and students, who already face the biggest hurdles to vote. Meanwhile, the bill penalizes voter registration groups, from boy scout troops to the League of Women Voters, for their attempts to bring more eligible citizens into our democracy. These changes come on the heels of the governor’s successful push to deny the right to vote to nearly a million Floridians who have served their time and paid their debt.
Check out the video from the Brennan Center's recent symposium on Accountability After Citizens United. The symposium explored the current debate between shareholders and corporate managers over corporate political spending, new strategies to promote accountability through regulatory pressure points, and the constitutional tensions between the rights of associations and the rights of individuals. Also see the Center’s new book, Money, Politics and the Constitution: Beyond Citizens United, published by The Century Foundation Press.
Since January, legislators have proposed strict new voter ID policies in at least 37 states, including Florida, a key swing state in federal elections. Far more restrictive than bills introduced in the past, critics argue these policies are not only ineffective, but also make it harder for seniors, students and other vulnerable citizens to vote. A recent Brennan Center report finds these measures also have high implementation costs at a time when many states are trying to close budget gaps. In an editorial this week, The New York Times slammed these efforts, citing Brennan Center research indicating that as many as 11% of U.S. citizens — over 21 million Americans — do not have the necessary photo I.D. to cast a ballot at the polls.
Our nation’s civil legal aid system is in crisis, as the weak economy continues to send more low-income families and at-risk individuals into our overburdened court system without legal help. In many instances, the very people the recession is hitting hardest – families facing foreclosure, workers fighting wage theft – are the ones cut off from help, with costly results for themselves and their communities. Read our updated analysis on the rising need for legal services and the impact of new funding cuts in states around the country.
A new Brennan Center survey released this month, A Report Card on New York's Civic Literacy, has found yawning gaps in New Yorkers' basic knowledge of government, politics and the U.S. Constitution. Based on a poll of over one thousand New Yorkers, the report finds that more than eight in ten New Yorkers believe that to work properly, American democracy requires citizens to be knowledgeable about the Constitution, but fewer than two in ten believe they are actually very familiar with the document.
Since January, new photo ID and proof of citizenship requirements for voting have been introduced in 37 states. Far more restrictive than bills introduced in the past, critics argue these policies are not only ineffective, but also make it harder for seniors, students and other vulnerable citizens to vote. A recent Brennan Center report finds these measures have high implementation costs at a time when many states are trying to close budget gaps. Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, and New Mexico are among the states where these bills have met with rejection or stalled out, but many more states are expected to pass these measures or already have. The Washington Post recently reported on these and other efforts across the country that would make voting harder.
Special interest groups set a new record in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, spending just under $3.6 million on television ads in the election, topping the previous record in Wisconsin of $3.38 million set in the notorious 2008 election between now-Justice Michael Gableman and then-Justice Louis Butler. One liberal group seeking to elect challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg spent an estimated $1,365,340. Four conservative groups seeking to re-elect Justice Prosser spent a combined $2,216,120. Read the Politico, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Wisconsin State Journal, and USA Today coverage of the race.
Arizona's public financing system — at issue in a high-profile case before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 28th — drew support from a prominent group of bipartisan political leaders, business executives, constitutional law experts, and political scientists. The case, McComish v. Bennett, concerns the constitutionality of one aspect of the state’s program — “triggered matching funds.” Among the leaders supporting Arizona’s law are Charles Fried, Bill Bradley, Bob Kerrey, Sam Nunn, Warren Rudman, Alan Simpson, Heather Gerken, Richard Pildes, and a group of former state Supreme Court justices.
In advance of Rep. Peter King's hearings, the Brennan Center released a report critiquing the way some law enforcement agencies seek to spot and deter “homegrown terrorists.” The report, Rethinking Radicalization, notes the growing divide between how the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies view radicalization and proposes an approach grounded in fact, rather than stereotypes. Check out a media roundup of stories about the report.
A series of proposed New Hampshire bills would “prohibit many college students from voting in the state,” according to a Washington Post report. This is just one among dozens of measures being proposed in the states to restrict access to voting. The Brennan Center released a report last month detailing the costs of another proposal, voter ID policies, which have been introduced in 32 states. These measures would add millions in new costs and erect new barriers to voting for an estimated 33 million American citizens. See more Brennan Center research on this issue.
A group of prominent New Yorkers in business, public service, and other fields has written Gov. Andrew Cuomo, offering to support his push for a new campaign finance system with matching funds and voluntary contribution limits. A similar system for New York City elections has seen marked success over the past decade. The bipartisan group argues New York's lax campaign finance rules let special interest money dominate Albany. For more, see our new report, Meaningful Ethics Reform for the "New" Albany.
A new voter I.D. bill stalled today in the Wisconsin state senate because of its fiscal impact. Republicans had threatened to enact the law while Democratic senators were away, having fled the capital to prevent a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s widely publicized budget measures. If it had no budget impact, the measure could have passed without the Democratic senators, but to avoid an immediate challenge in court, Republican senators had to amend the bill to mandate new costs. As a new Brennan Center report shows, strict voter I.D. policies like the one proposed in Wisconsin must add millions in new costs to state budgets to pass constitutional muster and survive court challenges. Read The Cost of Voter I.D. Laws: What the Courts Say.
For years, conservatives have railed against the size and role of government, and the public has largely bought their claims. President Obama countered that view in his State of the Union address, drawing a "picture of government as an engine of economic innovation." As Democrats present their vision of government, they must commit to making it more effective and not just bigger, argues Brennan Center executive director Michael Waldman. Until they do, "they will never earn the trust of the public, nor should they."
After weeks of debate, the Senate reached a compromise on rules reform, which would do away with anonymous "holds," exempt certain executive branch positions from confirmation votes, and eliminate other stall tactics. The compromise, however, would not change filibuster rules. "The American people should not have to settle for baby steps toward reform. There is simply too much work to do in 2011 for the Senate to remain crippled by its own procedural rules," wrote the Brennan Center's Mimi Marziani and Diana Lee in a piece in Politico. Marziani, along with Susan Liss, also appeared on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show to discuss the filibuster. Click here to read our recent white paper on filibuster abuse.
The Brennan Center for Justice released the first comprehensive study of the 2008 rules governing the FBI’s authority over domestic investigations – including terrorist probes – which shows that the 2008 guidelines issued by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey are considerably more lax than previous incarnations, expanding the FBI's investigatory discretion and limiting oversight. Click here to view video and photos of the report release event, which included Representative Rush Holt and NBC's Michael Isikoff.
Jan. 10 - In 2010, the Brennan Center released two groundbreaking studies of the impact of court “user fees” on the convicted. "The examinations showed that the fees make it harder for released prisoners to re-enter society and that harsh collection mechanisms are themselves costly and counter-productive." It appears the Circuit Court in Florida's Leon County was listening: recently the chief judge of Leon County, which includes Tallahassee, cancelled 8,000 bench warrants for overdue court costs, and the county will no longer jail indigent people who cannot pay their court fees. As the Tallahassee Democrat noted in an editorial, these measures “mitigate a counterproductive system….[These steps were] advanced by the Brennan Center for Justice.”
Filibusters delay and threaten the work of the Senate – and also blunt political accountability. Often the mere threat of a filibuster is enough to prevent an issue from reaching the floor. In testimony submitted for today’s Senate Rules Committee hearing, "Examining the Filibuster: History of the Filibuster 1789-2008," the Brennan Center shows how filibuster abuse offends core democratic values. Read our testimony here.
A new Brennan Center report -- Racial Disparities in Federal Prosecutions -- encourages efforts to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The report offers guidelines, developed with the help of by former U.S. Attorneys in 2005, intended to help prosecutors eliminate disparities. Brennan Center Board Chairman James E. Johnson, former Under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, wrote the foreword; in the introduction, Brennan Center attorneys Nicole Austin-Hillery and Melanca Clark outline present-day federal reform goals. See more of our efforts to pursue racial justice.
The Brennan Center convened a day-long conference on March 27 with top legal scholars to craft a new, post-Citizens United jurisprudence and to rethink the relationship between money, politics, and the Constitution. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) gave the keynote speech. Harvard Law Professor Lani Guinier, Yale Law School Dean Robert Post, U. of Chicago's Geoffrey Stone and others discussed a voter-centric vision of the First Amendment and considered alternative constitutional doctrines that would push back against the Court's deregulatory sweep. Read the symposium program and more details; audio and transcripts will be posted later this week.
Mar. 23 - Florida relies increasingly on court "user fees" to subsidize its criminal justice system. This practice -- known as cash register justice -- creates a vicious cycle of debt for ex-offenders and threatens their successful re-entry into society. Since 1996, Florida has added more than 20 new categories of financial obligations to those accused and convicted of a crime; the fees are levied on those who are indigent, cannot pay, and sometimes can find themselves incarcerated if they miss a payment. "Is heaping debt on those unable to afford it a sensible or moral approach to financing state functions?" asks Rebekah Diller, author of the Brennan Center’s new report, The Hidden Costs of Florida's Criminal Justice Fees. Read about our work on court fees and fines.
Mar. 16 – The Brennan Center for Justice urged House leaders to pass the Democracy Restoration Act. The bill would restore the right to vote to nearly 4 million American citizens with a past criminal conviction, now living and working in their communities. “Congress is listening to 4 million silenced Americans,” said Erika Wood, Brennan Center attorney and author of Restoring the Right to Vote: “Excluding millions of citizens from the franchise only weakens our democracy. Congress should pass the Democracy Restoration Act because a strong, vibrant democracy requires the broadest possible base of voter participation, across all sectors of society." Read testimony by Brennan Center Legal Director Burt Neuborne. See the NY Times editorial on the bill, and other recent press.
Citizens United undercut democracy, amplifying special interests at the expense of actual voters. In this new era, public funding of elections and modernizing our voter registration process would go a long way toward stengthening our electoral system. Both Brennan Center proposals would boost participation and align candidates’ political priorities with that of ordinary Americans. Read Brennan Center Executive Director Michael Waldman on the Court's ruling in the Washington Post and NY Times. Brennan Center Senior Counsel Fritz Schwarz Jr. looks at NYC’s innovative multiple-matching system to boost the role of the small donor in Roll Call. See Brennan Center testimony at House and Senate Committee hearings in the wake of the decision.
The Brennan Center, in a series of testimonies, urged House Committees to enact a range of campaign finance reforms, including public financing of elections, voter registration modernization, corporate accountability, and take a voter-centric view of the First Amendment.
>Monica Youn’s testimony >Ciara Torres-Spelliscy’s testimony >Brennan Center written testimony by Michael Waldman and Susan Liss
An empirical study released October 6 shows growing numbers of families face foreclosure proceedings without the aid of legal counsel. This is the first national study of the dramatic overlap between the longstanding shortage of lawyers for the poor and the economic collapse. "To a startling degree, our current foreclosure crisis is also a legal crisis," said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center. Read more, see coverage at Arianna Huffington, USA Today, and the NY Times, or download the report now.
In the opening days of the Obama Administration, executive orders on detention, torture and secrecy mark a significant departure from Bush Administration policies. To learn more about our Liberty & National Security Project's work to restore checks & balances, habeas corpus and other constitutional values eroded under the previous administration, click here. To read Aziz Huq's latest American Prospect piece on the orders, click here.
In preparation for the incoming Obama Administration and 111th Congress, the Brennan Center for Justice prepared multiple transition documents on crucial policy issues. Click here to read more.
Sep. 30 – Out now, Voter Purges is one of the first systematic examinations of voter purging, a practice—often controversial—of removing voters from registration lists in order to update state registration roll. After a detailed study of the purge practices of twelve states, Voter Purges reveals that election officials across the country are routinely striking millions of voters from the rolls through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation. To read more, click here. CBS Evening news recently aired a report on Voter Purges—video clip found here, for the written article, click here.
Justice Benjamin of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia refused to recuse himself from the appeal of the $50 million jury verdict in Caperton v. Massey, even though the CEO of the lead defendant spent $3 million supporting his campaign for a seat on the court while preparing to appeal the verdict against his company. After winning election to the court, Justice Benjamin cast the deciding vote in the court's 3–2 decision overturning that verdict. With former Solicitor General Theodore Olson as counsel of record for the Petitioners, this case could soon be before the Supreme Court. In a recent editorial, the NY Times calls for Massey to be added to the Court's docket.
July 21 – Eight years after the butterfly ballot disaster of 2000, as well as billions of dollars spent on new voting technology, this country still has yet to fully address the problems caused by poor ballot design. Year in and year out, we see the same mistakes in ballot design, with the same result: disenfranchisement. Click here to see examples. Click here for the study. Additionally, read recent USA Today coverage here and a Times editorial here.
June 12 – In a huge blow to the Bush Administration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo Bay detainees do have a right to habeas corpus and may challenge their detention in court. The Center's Jonathan Hafetz filed an amicus brief in the case Boumediene v. Bush. This opinion will bear heavily on the nation's detention policy in the post-Bush era. ¶In the related cases of Munaf and Omar, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of their right to habeas corpus but allowed their transfer to a foreign jurisdiction. ¶After studying both decisions, the Brennan Center released the following. Additional media reaction posted here.
June 6 – At Newsweek.com, Brennan Center Director Michael Waldman sets his sights on harnessing the recent surge in voter participation. Assuming the trend carries through to November, how can we make sure this moment of rare public engagement is not just an aberration? Use the energy to fix voting, for good. "Starting next year," he writes, "the country should move to a system of universal voter registration, in which every eligible citizen can vote." Universal voter registration is one of seven bold ideas to revitalize our democracy found in A Return to Common Sense out this month.
May 29 – Today, the Brennan Center filed a brief asking the District Court of Washington DC to uphold subpoenas issued by Congress against W.H. Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former Counsel Harriet Miers. Highlighting the importance of countering the latest subversion of our system of checks & balances, this brief brings together four diverse groups across the political spectrum. The House Judiciary Committee is investigating what role the White House had in firing U.S. Attorneys. Bolten and Miers have refused to testify or provide necessary documents because the President has claimed executive privilege. Failure to uphold the subpoenas could set a damaging precedent. Read entire press release here.
May 22 – The Senate Judiciary Committee held "Closing the Justice Gap: Providing Civil Legal Assistance to Low-Income Americans." At this hearing, Rebekah Diller, Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program, delivered testimony defending meaningful access to the courts and urged congress to maintain a fully funded Legal Services Corporation. Her complete testimony may be downloaded here. The Brennan Center publication, "Access to to Justice: Opening the Courthouse Door," can be found here.
April 30 – After election debacles in 2000 and 2004, recent developments in the Sunshine State threaten to keep tens of thousands of eligible voters from getting to the polls in 2008—burdens on registrations drives, failure to protect voters from arbitrary purges, and efforts to make the voter ID requirement more onerous. As conditions mount against voters' ability to cast ballots, particularly in minority communities, some are asking if Florida will be this election's Florida.
April 28 – Ruling on Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's strict voter ID law by a 6–3 vote. Indiana's law, the most restrictive in the nation, could disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters. Despite the Court's approval, the negative impact of ID laws should still give other states pause before passing similar legislation. Read the Brennan Center's response here.
April 2 – Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobby, recently helped kick Justice Louis Butler—Wisconsin's first and only black Supreme Court Justice—off the bench. The campaign against Justice Butler also included a despicable race-baiting advertisement that was roundly criticized by state and national groups. ¶ Moneyed groups spending millions, effectively buying seats on state judicial benches, is not just grist for John Grisham's latest bestseller, it's part of a national trend recently highlighted by a Brennan Center op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. A new Brennan Center report, Fair Courts: Setting Recusal Standards, seeks to protect due process in the courts. Click here to be directed to the Fair Courts initiative page.
March 11 – For almost five years, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-marri has been imprisoned without charge in virtual isolation at the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina. Tortured. Subjected to degrading treatment. Denied his basic rights and religion. In a case that may be destined for the Supreme Court, Jonathan Hafetz argues against the President's right to classify suspects as "enemy combatants," while challenging the conditions the government detains al-marri in. Click here for the latest on Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli.