On Monday, Trump took his threats from Twitter to the Rose Garden, warning that he will deploy federal troops to suppress protests. Unfortunately, the law might be on his side. “Over two centuries ago, Congress passed a statute giving the president broad authority to deploy the military in response to civil unrest,” writes Elizabeth Goitein. “Even under the most responsible command, injecting military forces into a domestic crisis has the potential to make a bad situation worse. Under Trump, it could be disastrous.” // Boston Globe

Leaders across the country have said they believe that violence that broke out at some protests was started by outside agitators. “To a certain degree, law enforcement wants to present these protesters as outside agitators because they can justify more aggressive use of force against them,” Brennan Center Fellow Michael German tells Pittsburgh Action News. “I’m concerned that the way the administration is responding... is only going to further the kind of social division that often leads to political violence.” // Pittsburgh Action News

The New York City Police Department monitors Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts — particularly those of young Black men — and residents have pointed to surveillance cameras liberally sprinkled throughout Black neighborhoods. The NYPD’s deployment of technology to watch communities of color is part of a much longer story of government surveillance often disproportionately focused on marginalized groups. “We ignore this history at our peril,” Rachel Levinson-Waldman wrote in a piece from 2015 that is still relevant today. “If we fail to act when one group finds itself targeted by the government, we will soon find we are all under the microscope.” // Read More

In the wake of protests against police brutality, donations to bail funds spiked over the weekend to help get arrested protesters released. The Minnesota Freedom Fund, for instance, received nearly $20 million. The interest in cash bail sparked by the protests is a reminder that the United States is one of the only countries in the world with a cash bail system that is dominated by commercial bail bondsmen. And as Adureh Onyekwere explains, cash bail discriminates most against Black and Latino men as well as low-income people. // Read More

Trump and his allies have long claimed, without evidence, that different aspects of our elections are infected with voter fraud. “Before mail voting,” writes Max Feldman, “they pushed similar narratives about noncitizen voting, voter impersonation, and double voting in order to enact laws that reduce turnout and discredit adverse election results.” He lays out 10 of the most egregious voter fraud claims of the past five years. // Read More

Courts at all levels have started holding remote proceedings as a way to continue their work during the coronavirus pandemic. But courts must be careful they’re not jeopardizing justice along the way, argue Douglas Keith and Alicia Bannon. “As trial courts adopt new technologies amid the ongoing pandemic, they must consider the potential downsides of video hearings before pursuing longer-term shifts toward remote proceedings,” they write. // Read More

• Myrna Pérez will testify before Congress on Wednesday at 10 a.m. about protecting the right to vote during Covid-19 // Watch live
• Lawrence Norden will testify before Congress on Thursday at 1 p.m. about ensuring safe and fair elections during Covid-19 // Watch Live
• VIRTUAL EVENT: Is the ‘Deep State’ Real?: David Rohde on Accountability in Intelligence Agencies
  Tuesday, June 9 | 6:00–7:00 p.m. EDT | RSVP Today
  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde will be joined by former FBI agent and Brennan Center Fellow Michael German in a discussion about American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, abuses of power, and whether democratic accountability and political neutrality are possible.

• Spencer Boyer on coronavirus, disinformation, and democracy // Cable Podcast
• Lauren-Brooke Eisen on why prison reform in the time of Covid-19 matters now more than ever // Bloomberg
• Max Feldman on false claims of voter fraud // AFP Fact Check
• Michael German on Trump’s plan to label antifa as a terrorist organization // American Independent
• Elizabeth Goitein on the House’s failure to vote on a bill to reauthorize provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act // Courthouse News
• Sean Morales-Doyle on the court decision striking down voting restrictions in Florida // Daily Beast
• Myrna Pérez on voter purges in a vote-by-mail world // CNN
• Wendy Weiser on how the fairness and accessibility of absentee balloting rules are essential // American Prospect