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

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The Briefing

Next week, if all goes to plan, the Senate will begin to consider the For the People Act (S. 1). The bill is a very big deal. It would represent the best chance — the urgent, timely best chance — to stop the wave of voter suppression in states across the country. It would stop the gerrymandering that will start very soon, as redistricting begins. It will set national standards on vote by mail and early voting. And it would curb the role of big money in politics.

Naturally, a bill this important faces intense opposition. It also lately has drawn criticism from pundits who have the jitters. Isn’t there another bill? It’s so long! How can this pass?

Those with a sense of the legislative process know that the process is just beginning. Sen. Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia has expressed opposition to a party-line vote. But he’s sponsored the bill before, and as a former secretary of state, he knows how important these issues are. So do other senators. There will be many twists and turns in coming days and weeks. Recall how many times the Affordable Care Act was declared dead, then suddenly revived, before it was passed into law.

The Democratic caucus remains ardently supportive, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer continues to declare that “failure is not an option.” This, too, is a big deal. In years past, the party has only tepidly engaged in these issues. Now a passionate group of lawmakers knows this is the best chance to stop a dire threat to the integrity of our election system.

Time is of the essence. Right now, we are in the midst of the worst assault on voting rights since Jim Crow. Fourteen states have enacted twenty-two new laws to make voting harder, according to our recent analysis

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. There are at least 61 bills with restrictive voting provisions moving through 18 state legislatures. Undoubtedly, some of these bills will become law, too.

Only the For the People Act would roll back these laws, creating a national baseline for voting access that mandates states provide voters with same-day and automatic voter registration, early voting, and no-excuse mail voting. These reforms are highly popular with all voters and are modeled off state reforms implemented with bipartisan support. Forty-three states have some form of early voting, and 34 states allow no-excuse mail voting. Forty states allow voters to register online, twenty allow voters to register same-day, and twenty automatically register eligible voters.

There’s another bill, too, that is vital: the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The Brennan Center testified to Congress last week in support, showing how Black citizens and other voters of color must stand in line much longer than white voters — hard, quantifiable evidence

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of why the full strength of the Voting Rights Act must be restored. That bill is moving on a slower path than S. 1, for legal reasons compelled by the Supreme Court. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, the bill will not even be ready to move until autumn.

While the VRAA is critical to protecting voting rights in the long-term, it unfortunately would do nothing to stop the laws rapidly being passed in legislatures now. Its provisions only apply to future laws, not to bad policies already enacted. It only applies to a geographically narrow set of states. (The idea floated by Manchin that it could extend to all 50 states appears doomed by the Supreme Court, which already ruled the Voting Rights Act was applied too broadly.) There is no substitute for a national law setting national standards for federal elections — and that’s S. 1.

Can S. 1 be improved? Already Senate sponsors have also taken heed of good advice from elections officials, introducing amendments to lower costs and increase flexibility for states and localities.

These changes will make the bill significantly easier to implement and reduce overall administrative burdens, particularly for smaller jurisdictions. Surely we can expect more improvements as the measure moves forward.

But despite the case of last-minute nerves, there simply is no alternative to acting. This is a real crisis, right now, in the states and in the country, that threatens to undermine our democracy. The bill is well crafted and wildly popular. Democrats should not let the difficulty of the task — or of the need to work with and persuade Sen. Manchin — blind them to the significance of the measure. It would be a vote to be proud of. Next week’s drama on the Senate floor will be the beginning of the hard and broad push for this legislation — not the end.


Fellows

Overcoming the Existential Threat of Racism

In his new book, When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America

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, Theodore R. Johnson reckons with the legacy and persistence of racism in the United States while narrating the multigenerational story of his family against the backdrop of American history. “If racism is an existential threat to America and racism is a crime of the state, national solidarity refers to people coming together to hold the state accountable for falling short of America’s professed ideals,” he says in a Q&A with Tim Lau. // Read More

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Democracy

North Carolina Moves Legislation to Make Voting by Mail Harder

North Carolina is moving full speed ahead on legislation deceptively entitled the “Election Integrity Act,” which is actually designed to make it harder to vote, particularly for voters of color. Like similar bills across the country, it targets voting by mail, which some 1 million North Carolinians relied on to cast their ballots in 2020. “S.B. 326 would constrict the mail voting process in North Carolina by reducing the time to request and return an absentee ballot in a way that disproportionately harms voters of color,” writes Denise Lieberman. // Read More

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Justice

Covid-19 and the Struggle for Health Behind Bars

Due to the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and state health departments have paid increased attention to jails and prisons. But their gaze will soon shift once vaccines have been delivered and rates of Covid-19 abate, writes Dr. Homer Venters in the latest essay in the Brennan Center’s Punitive Excess series

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. “We must make an affirmative decision to apply the same lens of health expertise and transparency to carceral settings as we do to other parts of society,” writes Venters. “Concretely, we can begin to address this failure by setting up an office of detention health in the CDC that is charged with tracking the health of incarcerated people nationwide and the care provided them.” // Read More

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Constitution

Checking the President’s Sanctions Powers

There are more than 120 statutory powers that the president can invoke when declaring a national emergency. But the vast majority of the emergencies declared in recent decades rely on just one of these — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This obscure law has been the sole or primary statutory authority invoked in 65 of the 71 emergency declarations made since the National Emergencies Act (NEA) was enacted in 1976. A new Brennan Center report analyzes IEEPA’s use and proposes legislative reforms to prevent abuse and reduce harms. // Read More

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Coming Up

VIRTUAL EVENT: How the Word Is Passed: A Conversation with Clint Smith

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Friday, June 18 // 12:00 p.m.–12:45 p.m. ET

In his new book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

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, Clint Smith of the Atlantic reflects on how the history of slavery continues to reverberate today. In this virtual book talk, Smith joins the Brennan Center’s Theodore R. Johnson to discuss the hopeful role that memory can play in making sense of our country. RSVP today

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This event is produced in partnership with Lit Bar and New York University's John Brademas Center.

VIRTUAL EVENT: TNR Live: The Fight for Our Lives

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Tuesday, June 22 // 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. ET

Join Jason Linkins, deputy editor of the New Republic, for a discussion on the importance of protecting voting rights and the idea of “majority rule,” furthering the conversations started in the June issue. RSVP today

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This event is produced in partnership with the New Republic.

Want to keep up with Brennan Center events? Subscribe to the events newsletter.

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News

Alicia Bannon on diversity in the state and federal judiciaries // Washington Post

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Elizabeth Goitein on data privacy and how technology companies respond to subpoenas // Bloomberg

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Elizabeth Howard on the partisan nature of Arizona’s recent “audit” of the 2020 election // CNN

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Faiza Patel on Facebook’s recent decision to enact a two-year ban on former president Donald Trump // VOA

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Myrna Pérez on the restrictive voting laws that have been proposed in several GOP-led states // MSNBC

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

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.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

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