Publications
A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting
Explains and presents the redistricting process for state and federal government, and for many local governments, in digestible parts. Consider it an owners’ manual, for those who should own the process: we, the people.
Authored by: Justin Levitt with Bethany Foster
– 07/01/08
Writing Reform: A Guide to Drafting State & Local Campaign Finance Laws (2008 Revised Edition)
A guide to writing state and local campaign finance laws.
Authored by: Deborah Goldberg
– 06/27/08
A Return to Common Sense
Imagine an America in which a vast number of people routinely vote; where voting is easy, accessible to all, and fair; in which campaigns know they cannot win by dividing slivers of the electorate, but by energizing large numbers behind their plans and ideas.
Authored by: Michael Waldman
– 04/01/08
Fair Courts: Setting Recusal Standards
The Brennan Center’s recusal report addresses increasing threats to the impartiality of America’s state courts, and provides ten proposals to achieving meaningful reform of state recusal systems.
Authored by: James Sample, David Pozen and Michael Young
– 04/01/08
Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror
Unchecked and Unbalanced: Power in a Time of Terror (New Press) is an exploration of the expansion of executive power in the wake of 9/11, and provides a comprehensive analysis rooted in legal and political history of the current Administrations theory of unlimited presidential license. Now in paperback.
Authored by: Frederick A. O. Schwarz and Aziz Huq
– 04/01/08
Restoring the Right to Vote
Despite a history of expanding the franchise, there remains one significant blanket barrier to the franchise. 5.3 million American citizens are not allowed to vote because of a felony conviction. As many as 4 million of these people live in our communities, but are still denied the right to vote because of a prior conviction.
Authored by: Erika Wood
– 02/26/08
Improving New York City’s Public Benefits System: A Key Role for Help Desks
This Brennan Center Strategic Fund Policy Proposal sets forth the observations of advocates and of public benefits clients, as conveyed to the Brennan Center in interviews and focus groups that we conducted in 2007. We describe a variety of ways in which help desks can substantially improve the public benefits system and the lives of many New Yorkers. It is time for the City to remove its ban on help.
Authored by: David Pedulla
– 02/24/08
Twelve Steps to Restore Checks and Balances
Executive Privilege. Extraordinary Rendition. Torture Memos and other secret legal opinions. Warrantless wiretapping. Indefinite detention. Suspension of habeas corpus. America’s system of checks and balances is eroding, upsetting the delicate balance of power set forth in the Constitution. Twelve Steps to Restore Checks and Balances proposes specific reforms designed to keep the nation secure and free, as the Constitution’s Framers intended.
Authored by: Aziz Huq
– 01/01/08
The Truth About Voter Fraud
Voter fraud makes a popular scapegoat. In the aftermath of a close election, losing candidates are often quick to blame voter fraud for the results. Legislators cite voter fraud as justification for various new restrictions on the exercise of the franchise. And pundits trot out the same few anecdotes time and again as proof that a wave of fraud is imminent. Allegations of widespread voter fraud, however, often prove greatly exaggerated.
Authored by: Justin Levitt
– 11/09/07
The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why It Can Again
An exploration of the genius of the Framers and the applicability of their insights to today’s political climate by Eric Lane, a Senior Fellow of the living Constitution Fellows Program at the Brennan Center, and Michael Oreskes, Editor of the International Herald Tribune.
Authored by: Eric Lane and Michael Oreskes
– 09/18/07