State voter suppression laws are alarming. Will they have an impact? It’s hard to know for sure, of course. As baseball great Yogi Berra said, “I never make predictions, especially about the future.” But we can assess many potential negative effects. For example, if a law reduces the number of ballot drop boxes, it’s useful to look at how many people used those boxes in the last election. A new Brennan Center resource does just that with rundowns of new restrictive voting laws in six states — Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Montana, and Texas — with information for each measure on how voters are impacted, and estimates of how many. “In some cases,” our resource observes, “a single obstacle can impact hundreds of thousands of voters, while in other instances multiple policies compound, causing voting access to suffer death by a thousand cuts.” // Read More

After administering the “most secure” election in American history last year, election officials have come under unprecedented attack, with threats to both their work and to the well-being of officials and their families. In a new analysis, Lawrence Norden details what local, state, and federal governments can do to help. // Read More

The passage of the Patriot Act after 9/11 brought with it surveillance abuses reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s, with negligible benefits to national security. In an essay from the Brennan Center’s 9/11 at 20 series, Elizabeth Goitein argues for a much needed course correction. “In the next 20 years, depending on what steps we take now, the United States can become a surveillance state in the mold of China — or we can realize our aspirations to be a country in which people of all races, ethnicities, religions, and political beliefs are free to live their lives and speak their minds without fear,” she writes. // Read More

The Biden administration is looking to use post-9/11 counterterrorism tactics against escalating far-right violence. Michael German, a former FBI counterterrorism agent who went undercover with white supremacist groups, and Harsha Panduranga warn that such a path carries the risk of repeating mistakes that were made after 9/11. “Directing [law enforcement agents] to counter ‘radical’ ideologies or identify ill-defined ‘concerning behaviors’ will undoubtedly lead to the targeting of those who challenge the status quo — immigrant communities, communities of color, religious minorities, and activists — rather than white supremacists,” they write. // Read More

On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to halt the federal government’s use of private prisons. But his executive order on the issue falls short of that goal, leading to loopholes and unintended consequences. “It would be more impactful if the Biden administration focused on how to reduce the number of people in our federal and state prisons, local jails, and ICE detention facilities,” writes Lauren-Brooke Eisen. // Read More

• VIRTUAL EVENT: Guns vs. Speech: Does the 2nd Amendment Threaten the 1st?
  Tuesday, September 14 // 12–1:15 p.m. ET
  Over the last year, peaceful demonstrators across the United States have been met by armed individuals and self-proclaimed “militias.” Can speech be free when armed counter-protesters mix with unarmed protesters? Should state laws regarding the presence of guns at polling places be strengthened?
  To answer these questions — and look at what this looming conflict may mean in the Supreme Court — Brennan Center Fellow Eric Ruben (SMU Dedman School of Law) joins prominent legal scholars Mary Anne Franks (University of Miami School of Law), Darrell Miller (Duke University School of Law), Eugene Volokh (UCLA School of Law), and Timothy Zick (William & Mary Law School). RSVP today.
  This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.

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• Michael Li on gerrymandering’s threat to communities of color // BOSTON GLOBE
• Sean Morales-Doyle on our voting rights lawsuit against Texas // THE HILL
• Lawrence Norden on state attempts to control local election boards // NBC NEWS
• Yurij Rudensky on redistricting in North Carolina // SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL
• Daniel Weiner on transparency reform at the SEC // REUTERS