Your weekly source for analysis and insight from experts at the Brennan Center for Justice
The Briefing
Last week’s murders in Atlanta again reminded us of the destructive power of racism in America. What happened there was not random or the product of the gunman’s “bad day.” It flowed directly from anti-Asian hate and the misogyny that so often comes with it. And after such a difficult year for the AAPI community, its implications are all the more painful.
At moments like these, we must remind ourselves that the struggles for racial justice and democracy are inextricably bound. At the Brennan Center, we will continue to work for an inclusive, multiracial democracy where every voice is heard. In Congress, that fight continues with the For the People Act.
Last Wednesday, the For the People Act was introduced in the Senate. It’s significant that this bill bears the number S. 1 and has the strong support of Senate leaders — especially because it’s been nearly two decades since a significant democracy reform bill has been debated in the upper chamber.
In his first speech on the Senate floor, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) made powerful remarks in support of the bill. He connected the bill to his historic election, where turnout was double than that of a typical runoff and Georgia sent its first Jewish and Black senators to Washington. In response, legislators in his home state are trying to game the system.
“We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve seen since the Jim Crow era. This is Jim Crow in new clothes,” he said. “Since the January election, some 250 voter suppression bills have been introduced all across the country.”
In response to this assault on voting rights, Warnock argued that his colleagues have to pass S. 1. “The For the People Act is a major step in the march towards our democratic ideals by making it easier, not harder, for eligible Americans to vote by instituting common sense, pro-democracy reforms,” he went on to say. Those pro-democracy reforms — such as nationwide early voting and automatic voter registration, a ban on partisan gerrymandering, and small donor public financing — would transform our democracy and bring in the voices that have been drowned out.
Now that S. 1 has been introduced, the Senate must move quickly. The bill can thwart the assault on voting rights and the serious risk of partisan gerrymandering we’re facing in the upcoming redistricting cycle. These are dangerous threats to democracy. As Warnock went on to say, the important reforms S. 1 promises are too important to be held hostage by the Senate’s archaic filibuster rule.
“The four most powerful words in a democracy are ‘the people have spoken.’” Warnock said. “Therefore, we must ensure that all of the people can speak.” The For the People Act achieves that — and more.

 
Democracy
The Supreme Court Case That Could Hamstring the Government’s Ability to Regulate Businesses
Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, a case that centers on a California regulation that gives union organizers limited access to agricultural workplaces to talk to farmworkers during non-work hours. Thanks in part to this regulation, agricultural workers — who are disproportionately people of color and immigrants — have successfully bargained for substantial improvements in workplace safety, job protections, and benefits. But now, Cedar Point Nursery and another agricultural business argue that state-sanctioned labor organizing violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court’s ruling could make it harder for the government to regulate businesses in a wide range of areas beyond workers’ rights, write Martha Kinsella and Jenna Pearlson. // Read More
Making Senators Pay a Price for Filibustering
Our democracy is in serious need of the reform the For the People Act promises. But it’s being blocked by an antidemocratic tactic: the filibuster. Changing the rules to get rid of the 60-vote threshold for passing bills would require the cooperation of all 50 Senate Democrats, including Sen. Joe Machin of West Virginia, who has said that he opposed abolishing the filibuster. But according to Brennan Center Fellow Caroline Fredrickson, “the door is not entirely closed.” // Read More

 
Constitution
The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age
The Fourth Amendment stands for the principle that the government generally may not search its people or seize their belongings without appropriate process and oversight. As technology advances, courts grapple with how this protection should apply to the data generated by modern gadgets. Following the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States, a new Brennan Center report by Laura Hecht-Felella argues that a warrant should be required when law enforcement agencies seek access to a range of data generated by digital technologies, such as location information from cell phones, smart cars, license plate readers, and smart watches. // Read More
Anti-Protest Laws Threaten Indigenous and Climate Movements
“Critical infrastructure” laws increase criminal penalties for trespassing, damage, and interference with sites such as oil refineries and pipelines. With overly broad language and steep penalties, these laws make it likely that Indigenous and climate activists will be discouraged from exercising their First Amendment-protected protest rights. But Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who stood for four days in solidarity with protesters at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, has the opportunity to support the rights of the protesters she joined in the past. “Haaland can be a voice for Indigenous and climate movements facing an urgent threat,” writes Kaylana Mueller-Hsia. // Read More

 
Coming Up
  • Wednesday, March 24 | 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. ET
    A pathbreaking New York Times bestseller, Four Hundred Souls ranges across disciplines and genres to tell the many histories of Black Americans from 1619 through the present. The volume’s coeditor, historian Keisha N. Blain, and two of its contributors, political strategist Donna Brazile and anthropologist Laurence Ralph, join the Brennan Center’s Theodore R. Johnson to discuss how African-American resistance and engagement has shaped the contours of American democracy. RSVP today.
    This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.
  • Thursday, March 25 | 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. ET
    How is it that corporations can spend unlimited sums in our elections, but a Black defendant has no right to a ruling free of racial bias? Why does a company have the right to sell private prescription data, but marginalized children don’t have the right to an adequate public education? In his new book, How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights Is Tearing America Apart, constitutional scholar Jamal Greene argues that courts should reconcile competing rights, not discriminate between them. In this conversation, he’ll discuss how the United States became so “rightsist,” and how we can shift this paradigm to truly ensure justice, once and for all. RSVP today.
    This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.
  • Thursday, April 1 | 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. ET
    After the election of Donald Trump, journalist Seyward Darby went looking for the women of the so-called “alt-right” — really just white nationalism with a new label. Join Darby and Brennan Center Liberty & National Security Program Codirector Faiza Patel for a conversation about Darby’s new book, Sisters in Hate. RSVP today.
    This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.
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News
  • Lauren-Brooke Eisen on prison conditions during Covid-19 // Law360
  • Michael German on why we don’t need more hate crime laws // Los Angeles Times
  • Theodore Johnson on Mitt Romney and the For the People Act // Washington Post
  • Chisun Lee on super PACs in the New York City mayoral race // New York Times
  • Taryn Merkl on police officers at the insurrection // USA Today
  • Yurij Rudensky on why at-large districts make it difficult for people of color to win elections // Maryland Matters
  • Eliza Sweren-Becker on state voter suppression bills // Georgia Public Radio
  • Michael Waldman on restrictive voting bills // New York Times
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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