Yesterday in the Senate, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act became the latest voting reform bill to run headfirst into a Republican filibuster. The bill would safeguard our elections from attempts to suppress voting among communities of color. One example: gerrymandering and Latinos. According to the 2020 Census, Latinos made up half of population gains in a decade in which all of the country’s population growth came from communities of color. But lawmakers across the country are already working to lock Latino communities out of political opportunity, packing them into fewer districts to limit their electoral power or dispersing them across multiple districts to dilute their voting strength. Latinos make up 1 percent of all local and federal elected officials, despite being 18 percent of the population. This sorry state of affairs must be remedied with redistricting reforms, and new maps must give Latinos a fair shot at representation.

Prisons are among the most opaque public institutions in American society. Occasional leaks and spotty oversight reveal only a sliver of the mistreatment, deaths, and preventable illnesses that happen behind their concrete walls and barbed wire. In the latest installment of the Brennan Center’s Punitive Excess series, University of Texas professor Michele Deitch argues for the importance of independent oversight of American prisons in order to impose formal supervision and restrain staff from misconduct. While such monitoring is not a panacea, it can shine a light on some of the worst abuses and create the potential for reform.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in FBI v. Fazaga, considering whether the government can escape accountability for surveillance abuses by using the state secrets privilege, which prevents evidence with national security implications from being used in civil litigation. The stakes of the case are high — other pathways, such as criminal courts and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, have already been shown to tip the scales in the government’s favor. Allowing the state secrets defense to work in this case would mean ending one of the best and last recourses available against unlawful surveillance.

Inside American Politics 2021
Friday, November 5 // 2–5:30 p.m. ET
Political experts and strategists join the Brennan Center and John Brademas Center for a series of dialogues to discuss President Biden’s agenda, the current state of the GOP, what to expect in the 2024 presidential election, and the political landscape in Washington. RSVP today.

How Social Media Violates the Social Contract
Tuesday, November 16 // 12–1 p.m. ET
From recent Facebook whistleblower testimony on hate speech to social media surveillance by law enforcement, there is an urgent need for solutions to address Big Tech and its impact on society. Join our panel of experts at the cross section of civic (and civil) conversation, digital communication, and the future of democracy: Deval Patrick, former Massachusetts governor and member of President Biden’s Future of Tech Commission; Timothy Shriver, founder of UNITE and chairman of the Special Olympics; and Professors Rob Reich and Jeremy Weinstein, authors of the new book System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot. The panel will be moderated by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Julia Angwin. RSVP today.

Myrna Pérez, the Brennan Center's director of voting rights, was confirmed to the federal bench. Read more on Instagram >>