Trump’s legal bills for the numerous lawsuits and prosecutions against him are estimated at more than $100 million, and he’s turned to political donors to pay them. Much of this spending by Trump’s political action committees falls into legal gray areas, testing the boundaries of the law. Thanks to loopholes and lackluster enforcement, it is likely to continue until Congress acts to strengthen existing rules and pass broader campaign finance safeguards.

As trust in democratic institutions erodes, it’s difficult to know if the public will have confidence in the verdict in the Trump business records falsification case. But research shows that jurors are generally able to put aside their biases when considering the evidence. The Brennan Center’s new senior fellow, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, notes that instead of leaving the decision of guilt or innocence up to a king, politicians, or a judge, the founding fathers chose the jury system.

A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Brennan Center and Data for Black Lives revealed that DC police worked with federal law enforcement to monitor the largely peaceful racial justice protests of 2020 and 2021. Internal documents show that police purchased and used social media monitoring tools without adequate transparency or usage policies. Guardrails are crucial to protecting First Amendment rights.

Diversity on the bench is an essential component of a fair and impartial judiciary. Bringing a range of experiences and perspectives to bear allows judges to make better informed decisions and increases public confidence in their rulings. But the Brennan Center’s updated report on state supreme court diversity found that many groups remain underrepresented. For example, 25 states have no Black justices and 39 states have no Latino justices. Still, this year did bring a slight increase in demographic diversity across state supreme courts.

The latest edition of the Voting Laws Roundup details which states have made it harder to vote in 2024 and which have expanded access to the polls. Voters in at least 20 states will face new hurdles this year, such as in Alabama, where any person who submits another voter’s mail ballot application could face criminal penalties. That said, almost a dozen states have enacted new laws that make voting easier and more secure.