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.
At Salon, Ed Kilgore writes a must-read article on the forces behind the recent wave of voter suppression laws.
“The latest voter suppression tactic…can be found in Maine, where last week the Secretary of State sent a threatening letter to hundreds of college students who were legally registered to vote in Maine, floating the possibility of election law violation and encouraging them to re-register elsewhere.” – Think Progress
Citing a lack of federal approval required by the Voting Rights Act, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio blocked Texas’ redistricting plan, Bloomberg reports.
Texas state and local laws differ in their treatment of inmates for redistricting purposes, the Texas Tribune reports via the New York Times.
Joanne Mariner, director of the Human Rights Program at Hunter College, describes the resurgence of military trials for terrorist suspects. (Counter Punch Newsletter)
The Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets Blog has fun with word clouds and the patriotic names of PACs and SuperPACs.