Over the weekend, a walkout by Texas Democrats halted, for now, an extensive voter suppression bill in the state. Across the country, however, the effort to restrict the vote continues: according to a new Brennan Center analysis, states have already enacted more than 20 laws this year that will make it harder for Americans to vote — and many legislatures are still in session. These events have raised the stakes for the Senate to pass the For the People Act.

In a recent entry in our Punitive Excess series, Rahsaan “New York” Thomas explains the role that dehumanizing language has played in the rise of mass incarceration. The term “inmate,” for example, helped balloon the country’s prison population to more than 2.3 million. We allowed mass incarceration to happen because we lost sight that prisons contain people, writes Thomas.

Americans overwhelmingly want strong campaign finance laws, and they want them diligently enforced. But that won’t happen without fixing the Federal Election Commission, the nation’s troubled campaign finance regulator. Here’s how the For the People Act would help the FEC do its job of enforcing the law.

Arizona legislators are pushing a bill that would turn allegedly mismatched signatures on mail ballots into potential criminal cases. This bill takes the Republican obsession with imagined election fraud to the next level, and the resulting fear of prosecution will deter people from exercising their right to vote. The Arizona Legislature must vote against this unconscionable bill.

This week marked 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre — one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the United States — and its impact is still felt today by the descendants of those who were lost and displaced.⁣ Read more on Instagram >>

After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made
Monday, June 7, 2021 | 12:00 p.m.–12:45 p.m. ET
In his new memoir, After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor under President Barack Obama, shares insights from politicians, activists, and dissidents around the world who have been on the frontlines of the fight against authoritarianism and ethnonationalism. Vivian Salama, a longtime foreign correspondent who is now a national security reporter for the Wall Street Journal, will moderate. RSVP today.

This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.

Racism and the American Promise: Theodore R. Johnson with Leah Wright Rigueur
Wednesday, June 9, 2021 | 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. ET
In his new book, When the Stars Begin to Fall, Brennan Center Senior Fellow Theodore R. Johnson lays out the case that national solidarity is the path toward diminishing racism and that a blueprint for national solidarity can be found in the exceptional citizenship long practiced in Black America. In this virtual book talk, Johnson will discuss his faith in the American project and an urgent call to overcome what has long seemed intractable. RSVP today.

This event is produced in partnership with The New York Public Library.

Sean Morales-Doyle, deputy director in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, recommends “For Democrats of Color, Walkout on Texas Voting Bill Was Rooted in the Long Fight for Equal Voting Rights,” in which some Texas lawmakers describe what their mostly Black and Hispanic constituents would face under the GOP’s restrictive voting bill.