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

For 16 years, Brennan Center Fellow Michael German served as an FBI special agent before eventually leaving the bureau as a whistleblower. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post
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“The byzantine process Congress established for intelligence community whistleblowers makes it easy for those who would prefer to isolate, discredit, and attack the messengers to avoid confronting the corruption they reported,” writes German. “It is time for Congress to give FBI and intelligence agency employees the full whistleblower guarantees enjoyed by other federal workers.” And in a Q&A ([link removed]) with the Brennan Center, German answered a few questions about what compels a whistleblower to speak up, the potential fallout for the CIA officer who exposed President Trump’s possible abuse of power in trawling for dirt on Joe Biden from the president of Ukraine, and the importance of whistleblowers to our democracy. Without whistleblowers, says German, “neither our liberty nor our security can be preserved.”

Democracy

Protecting the Government from Executive Abuse

Two critical functions of the federal government — objective scientific research and the appointments process for filling senior administration positions — are under attack, according to a report published earlier this month by the bipartisan National Task Force on Rule of Law & Democracy. Task force member Chuck Hagel, who formerly served as secretary of defense and as U.S. senator from Nebraska, calls on Congress to pass legislation to protect scientific integrity in an op-ed for Scientific American. “Just about everything we do in society depends in some way on research and data coming out of the federal government,” he said. “We must rebuild scientific integrity in government. Inaction puts us all at risk.” // Scientific American

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And in an op-ed for the Guardian, Task Force co-chair Preet Bharara, who served as the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, underscores the need for reforming the political appointments process to protect the government decision-making process from patronage or nepotism. “Nepotism puts favoritism and privilege above fairness and merit,” he said. “Congress can respond by making clear that the prohibition on nepotism applies to presidential appointments in the White House.” // The Guardian

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Legal Groups Call for Diversity on State Supreme Court

Several legal groups are urging Delaware Gov. John Carney to consider diversity as he selects a nominee for chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, which has never had a single justice of color and has had just two female justices. In its recent report State Supreme Court Diversity ([link removed]), the Brennan Center found that Delaware was one of 24 states with an all-white Supreme Court bench as of May 2019. Among those states, Delaware has the third largest percentage of people of color in its population. In 2018, Delaware’s population was 62 percent white. // Deleware Public Media

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Court Battles Continue Over North Carolina Political Maps

North Carolina is in the process of redrawing its legislative district maps after a district court found that the Republican-controlled legislature had gerrymandered dozens of House and Senate districts for partisan advantage. The issue of extreme partisan gerrymandering is particularly acute in North Carolina because of the state’s status as a potential battleground state.

"If one party can use a temporary advantage in a redistricting year to make it into a lasting advantage that lasts for the entire decade, then it can control the policy-setting agenda for 10 years at a time," said Yurij Rudensky, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. // North Carolina Public Radio

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Constitution

How Police Are Using Technology to Track People Across the United States

Emerging technology — such as drones, facial recognition, and algorithm-driven policing — is giving police departments new ways to track suspects and prevent potential crimes. It's also rapidly expanding the scope of police surveillance of civilians. The Brennan Center published a report ([link removed]) earlier this month that compiles the surveillance tactics used by the New York City Police Department and highlights their potential threats to privacy, free speech, and due process. // Yahoo! News

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Coming Up

Tonight, CNN and the New York Times host the fourth round of the 2020 Democratic presidential debates. Follow @BrennanCenter ([link removed]) on Twitter for Brennan Center experts’ live reactions to what the candidates have to say on our issues.

News

Preet Bharara, co-chair of the Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy at the Brennan Center, on why anti-corruption measures, such as reforming the political appointee process, should become law // WNYC

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Jennifer Weiss-Wolf on how the criticism faced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the price of her haircut serves as an example of a “pink tax,” or gender-based pricing // Newsweek

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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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