Thursday, April 10

House passes GOP voting bill that could disenfranchise millions

• In a 220-208 vote, with four Democrats voting in favor, the House passed the SAVE Act, a bill that could strip voting rights from millions of Americans. It would make it more difficult for active voters — Republicans and Democrats alike — to continue participating in elections, and would erect unprecedented barriers for new voters hoping to register and participate.
  
  
• The bill appears to face long odds in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster.

How the SAVE Act upends over a century and a half of protecting voting

• In interviews with Democracy Docket, historians and voting experts sought to put the SAVE Act in historical context — and could point to no close parallels. “There’s never been an attack on voting rights out of Congress like this,” said Alexander Keyssar, a professor of History and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a leading historian of voting rights. “It’s always been the federal government trying to keep states in check on voting rights, for the most part.”
  
  
• Sean Wilentz, a professor of American History at Princeton University, was even blunter. “It’s the most extraordinary attack on voting rights in American history,” Wilentz said. “This is an attempt to destroy American democracy as we know it.”

Trump orders probe against officials who opposed his election lies

• Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate two of his former officials who publicly opposed Trump's 2020 election fraud claims and criticized the internal workings of his administration. 

DOJ drops another Biden-era voting rights case

• The Justice Department is dropping its challenge to Arizona’s proof of citizenship laws — though litigation will continue with the pro-voting plaintiffs. This is the latest Biden-era voting rights case that the DOJ dismissed as the Trump administration continues to abandon voting rights.