Your weekly source for analysis and insight from experts at the Brennan Center for Justice
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The Briefing
This Thursday, the Census Bureau will send states the data they will use to draw legislative maps to be used for the next decade. It will be the first redistricting round since a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that partisan gerrymandering cannot be challenged in federal court. And it is the first redistricting since the Shelby County decision gutted the Voting Rights Act. As a result, the stage is set for rampant partisan gerrymandering to skew many of those maps in favor of politicians’ preferences over the public’s.
This undemocratic process has a real impact on the balance of power in Congress and many state legislatures. We saw it at the federal level in the 2010s, when extreme partisan bias in congressional maps gave Republicans a net advantage of some 16 seats in the House. The same has happened on the state level. For example, in 2018 Wisconsin Democrats won the majority of the statewide vote but only 36 of 99 state assembly seats.
Although partisan gerrymandering hurts everyone, often communities of color bear the brunt. Racially polarized voting patterns and residential segregation mean that targeting communities of color can be an effective tool for creating advantages for the party that controls redistricting — whether that party is the Democrats or Republicans.
Federal legislation is clearly needed to help stop partisan gerrymandering, and time is of the essence. As we detail in our new explainer
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about this week’s crucial census release, the pandemic meant that the government needed more time for collecting and processing the data. In order to get it out as soon as possible, the bureau is initially releasing the information in an older, less user-friendly format. (It will come out in a more accessible form by the end of September.) That may slow down the mapmakers with some additional work up-front, but not by much. In most cases, the states will be able to begin using the data in a couple of weeks, and many of them are expected to start and potentially even complete their map-drawing processes within a few months.
Rather than voters choosing their representatives, gerrymandering empowers politicians to choose their voters. It’s time to put an end to it, before it’s too late.
Democracy
Large Racial Turnout Gap Persisted in 2020 Election
Some have used 2020’s record-breaking voter turnout to say that America is past racial discrimination in voting, but that’s a specious argument. While it’s true that turnout last year was high for voters of all races, it was far from the same across those groups. A new analysis from Kevin Morris and Coryn Grange digs into the numbers, finding that 71 percent of white voters cast ballots for president in 2020 compared with only 58 percent of nonwhite voters. This disparity — which varies between Black, Asian, and Latino Americans — has been present for years, and new voter suppression laws are bound to make it even worse. // Read More
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Constitution
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube: Double Standards in Regulating Content
Social media companies have created two-tiered content moderation practices that may punish marginalized groups for everything from discussing current events to speaking out against injustice. At the same time, according to a new Brennan Center report, the powerful groups that can be the main drivers of damaging effects are more likely to be protected. “While social media companies dress their content moderation policies in the language of human rights, their actions are largely driven by business priorities, the threat of government regulation, and outside pressure from the public and the mainstream media,” write Ángel Díaz and Laura Hecht-Felella. // Read More
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Justice
How Atrocious Prisons Conditions Make Us All Less Safe
Prison sentences are meant to punish people convicted of crimes by taking away their freedom, after which they are supposed to reenter society. But American prisons are such abusive and violent places that they make reentry far more difficult than it needs to be for many returning citizens, writes Shon Hopwood, a Georgetown University law professor who served over 10 years in federal prison. In the latest essay in our Punitive Excess series
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, he asks, “After such brutal traumatization, is it any wonder that they might struggle to obtain stable housing or employment, manage mental illness, deal with conflict, or become a better spouse or parent?” Shopwood outlines policies that would help end the dehumanization in prisons to the benefit of everyone. // Read More
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News
Lawrence Norden on how to protect election officials // The Hill
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Eliza Sweren-Becker on state voter suppression legislation // Wall Street Journal
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Michael Li on the battle over redistricting // Washington Post
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Dan Weiner on transparency for PACs // Daily Beast
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Jennifer Weiss-Wolf on gender equity and the Olympics // Ms.
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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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