Your weekly source for analysis and insight from experts at the Brennan Center for Justice

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The Briefing

Yesterday General Paul Nakasone declared, “Our No. 1 objective at the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command is safe, secure and legitimate 2020 elections.”

Combating foreign election interference would be hard enough without the coronavirus. We know from 2016 that hostile foreign actors like Russia will take every opportunity to exploit Americans’ fear and confusion around the voting process. A pandemic only gives them more material to work with.

Meanwhile, election officials must choose between spending what little they have on Covid-19 protections and election security. Before the disease struck, Congress provided funding to secure the election, but that isn’t nearly enough now. The Brennan Center’s own estimate is that Congress must provide $4 billion

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to ensure Election Day goes as smooth as possible in November.

Tomorrow, the Senate Rules Committee will hold a hearing on preparing for the November election. Ahead of this meeting, more than 30 former top national security officials — including Homeland Security Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and John Kerry, Secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice — signed a letter

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urging Congress to include more funding for the election in the next stimulus package.

In it, they write, “Americans should feel confident that their election officials have the resources needed to provide healthy options for all voters and ensure integrity in electoral outcomes.” In polarized times, their letter is a bipartisan reminder that reliable, trusted elections are crucial to our national security. And as signatory Spencer Boyer writes

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, Congress has a duty to protect them by quickly providing additional funding.

Election officials’ backs are against the wall. In little more than 100 days, they must provide safe, clean polling places

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that allow for social distancing for poll workers and voters; print and provide postage

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for an unprecedented surge in absentee ballots; and take cybersecurity measures

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to protect our election systems from cyberattacks. That they can do this without way more resources is magical thinking.

Congress has the power and responsibility to give these unsung heroes of democracy what they need. With $4 billion in federal funding, we can have a safe, secure, and fair election in November.

Democracy

John Lewis Was a Hero for Democracy and Civil Rights

Rep. John Lewis was one of the great heroes of American history. He was an inspiration for the Brennan Center and a powerful voice for our country’s ideals. Lewis was the “conscience of Congress” and fought injustice wherever he saw it. At 21, he was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and led the Freedom Rides. At 23, he gave an address at the March on Washington, passionate and authentic, vowing to keep marching “until the Revolution of 1776 is complete.” In that speech, he was the first major figure to call for “one man, one vote.”

It’s still possible to be shocked by the photo of Lewis leading the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965. With his hands in his raincoat, Lewis stood still as the Alabama state troopers charged at him. The police fractured his skull but not his spirit. A week after “Bloody Sunday,” President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To his last days, John Lewis was an urgent voice to restore the Voting Rights Act, which was gutted by the Supreme Court seven years ago. To really honor John Lewis, the Senate must take up and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act. // Read More

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The United States Needs a Third Reconstruction

America’s Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War and during the civil rights movement were not without their flaws, but without them, the country would not have made what racial progress it has. Today, another Reconstruction is needed to avoid wasting the promise of its predecessors. “A Third Reconstruction will require many things, three of them vital: truth, reconciliation, and recompense,” Brennan Center Fellow Wilfred U. Codrington III writes. “At no point in American history has there been a major national effort toward achieving any of these things separately, much less collectively.” // The Atlantic

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Is Facebook Moving on Political Ads?

Facebook is reportedly considering disallowing paid political ads for the remainder of the 2020 race. This would be a huge change in light of the role Facebook has played in recent elections. Brennan Center Fellow Ciara Torres-Spelliscy walks through the events that made Facebook come to consider this decision, including pressure from civil rights organizations and commercial advertisers. If Facebook doesn’t go through with this change, expect a boatload of political lies in your Facebook feed through November. // Read More

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Justice

Bail Reform After the Protests

The recent protests against racial inequality have led to a surge in donations to bail funds — and brought bail reform issues to the forefront. “Research has shown that individuals of color, particularly Black and Latinx men, are charged significantly higher rates of bail than their white male counterparts, even when charged with the same offenses,” Taryn Merkl tells CBS News. // CBS News

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Constitution

President Trump and Police Nationwide Continue to Sensationalize the ‘Antifa’ Threat

Protests are nothing new to Portland, and over the last two or three years the police response to them has been aggressive. But when federal officers arrived in Portland in early July, the demonstrations grew more heated and made matters much, much worse — with the Trump administration pointing to “antifa” and property damage as justification for the federal response. “They are equating terrorism to vandalism,” says Brennan Center Fellow Michael German. “You can wash spray paint off a wall. You can paint over it. It’s not that serious of a crime. And why that would ever justify the government’s use of violence is hard to understand.” // The Washington Post

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Meanwhile, as the White House spreads disinformation about antifa, law enforcement offices across the country have shared detailed reports of far-right extremists seeking to attack protesters and police. These reports were recently hacked and posted online, providing an unprecedented look at the communications between state, local, and federal law enforcement in the face of nationwide protests. As German tells the Intercept, these documents give a sober and fair assessment of the violent threat coming from far-right extremists yet sensationalize the threat from antifa, President Trump’s favorite boogeyman. // The Intercept

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News

Lauren-Brooke Eisen on the rise of mass incarceration over the last 50 years // America Magazine

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Liz Howard on election officials' need for more resources // PBS

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Michael Li on New York’s independent redistricting commission // Times Union

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Lawrence Norden on the security of vote by mail // USA Today

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Faiza Patel on law enforcement and disinformation // National Interest

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Myrna Pérez on long lines at the polls // New York Times

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Thomas Wolf on the Trump administration’s efforts to seek citizenship data via driver’s license records // USA Today

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Wendy Weiser on mail ballot rejection rates // Washington Post

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Have an issue you'd like us to cover? Feedback on this newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

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