What We’re Reading Today: Democracy Under Attack

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.

Democracy is under attack by regressive state voting laws, including voter ID laws, writes Judith Browne Dianis of the Advancement Project in the Huffington Post.

Florida’s new voting laws, the lawsuits they have garnered, and the state’s desire to move up its presidential primary could cause confusion and different voting rules in different Florida counties. (National Journal)

“[I]t is hard to reconcile Texas’s decision not to expand the number of Hispanic-majority districts in light of the population growth and the proscriptions of the Voting Rights Act. Texas may prove in court that it had a legitimate reason for not doing so, but what that reason might be is not evident to us.” – The Washington Post editorial board

Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, says “democracy loses with SuperPACs.”

The New York Times’ editorial board calls for an end to mandatory minimum sentences: “The federal and state governments should get rid of them — and the injustices they produce.”

Jonathan Turley of George Washington University: President Obama has been a “disaster for civil liberties.”