On Monday, the Brennan Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court to show that Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution has no basis in constitutional history. The brief from 15 founding-era historians emphasizes that the United States was born from the notion that leaders should be accountable to the people, and no one is above the law — even presidents.

The justices have the power to quickly reject Trump’s ahistorical argument and allow him to stand trial for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In the past, the Court has acted swiftly in cases where the presidency was at stake. By dragging their heels now, the justices are giving Trump exactly what he wants: time. Before casting their ballots this fall, voters have a right to know if they’re being asked to elect someone who is guilty of a serious crime against democracy.

The Brennan Center pushed back in court last week against two lawsuits filed in Michigan and Maryland that threaten to disenfranchise voters. Both suits seek to turn a federal law designed to boost voter registration into a tool to aggressively purge voter rolls, which endangers eligible voters’ registrations. The lawsuits’ claims rely on shaky data and misleading allegations, and even if they don’t succeed, they stand to waste election offices’ limited resources and foster distrust about our electoral process. Courts should soundly reject these baseless lawsuits.

Excessive Punishment, a new book edited by the Brennan Center’s Justice Program Senior Director Lauren-Brooke Eisen, examines how a maze of local, state, and federal agencies has fueled mass incarceration and deterred attempts at reform. This collection of 38 essays by activists, academics, and formerly incarcerated people explores issues ranging from the consequences of a criminal conviction to the realities of life behind bars, as well as how the excesses of the criminal justice system are entwined with poverty, racism, and the legacy of slavery. In detailing the failures of the status quo, the book makes a powerful case for reimagining the justice system to support restoration rather than retribution.

A growing number of state courts have had to grapple with whether singing or writing violent song lyrics can be used as evidence that a person committed a violent crime. Courts should be wary of allowing this, a new State Court Report piece warns. The tactic, which usually targets rap music, raises serious free speech concerns. Just as alarming, it risks convicting people not because of their actions, but because of how jurors react to their taste in music.

The nomination of Adeel Mangi, the country’s first Muslim federal appellate nominee, has met with vitriolic backlash that’s unfortunately not surprising. Like many people of color and women nominated to the bench in recent years, Mangi faced brutal questioning in the Senate about his pro bono record. He also was subjected to Islamophobic questions about his stance on Israel and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This mistreatment may discourage Muslim Americans and other underrepresented groups from serving on the federal bench, undermining the legitimacy of our judiciary.

A federal trial that began this week could reverse Black voters’ recent victory for fair maps in Louisiana that was 30 years in the making. Unhappy white voters are challenging a newly drawn Black-majority congressional district in the state as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. If they succeed, it could throw Louisiana’s 2024 election into chaos and leave in place a map with only one Black-majority district. The effort is proof of why we need Congress to pass stronger voting protections for people of color.

Last week, a special intelligence court gave the Biden administration permission to continue using a controversial authority that has been abused to spy on Americans — even if Congress lets the authority expire this month. The administration’s move to sidestep Congress underscores that the government can’t be trusted to self-police its broad surveillance powers. Lawmakers must take back the reins, starting by terminating or reforming Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to protect Americans from warrantless surveillance.

The White House has announced long-awaited updates to how federal surveys ask about race and ethnicity. These changes, aimed at making the 2030 census more representative, will help ensure that communities receive their fair share of political representation and federal funding. Now it’s up to the Census Bureau to implement the revisions in a way that makes it easy for all Americans to respond.