Yesterday, we released internal records from the Los Angeles Police Department exposing social media monitoring products that are being marketed to law enforcement. These tools raise serious First Amendment concerns, especially with respect to marginalized groups. In the marketing materials — now public thanks to a freedom of information lawsuit — the company Voyager Labs claims that it can predict whether a person is a risk to public safety based on information like who their online friends are. In one case study, Voyager built a database from the public profiles of thousands of people who were Facebook friends with one criminal suspect:

The documents are a stark reminder that it’s time for change throughout the ecosystem of social media surveillance, from the companies developing tools to the platforms failing to aggressively police them to the law enforcement agencies purchasing them.

Redistricting is under way nationwide, and the new maps from states like Texas and North Carolina are a grim sight. Republicans are gerrymandering away new electoral opportunities for communities of color, and in many places worsening existing ones. Thanks to an under-the-radar Supreme Court ruling, Rucho v. Common Cause, maps that dilute representation for communities of color are permissible so long as the mapmakers claim they were only trying to target the opposing party. In affirming that racial gerrymandering is illegal, the Court has given partisan gerrymandering the green light. Unless the Senate passes the Freedom to Vote Act, which would ban partisan gerrymandering and make it harder for states to defend discriminatory congressional maps, this redistricting cycle could be among the worst in history for communities of color.

In the search for ways to improve our current system of mass incarceration and over-policing, many places have pioneered new methods for public safety and accountability. The latest essay from the Brennan Center’s Punitive Excess series explores approaches to our current criminal legal system that have worked to transform communities for the better.

Covid-19 exposure notification apps were touted as a tool that could turn the tide of the pandemic, but they didn’t catch on in the United States. Now digital vaccine credentials are the latest public health tech innovation to emerge, and they are being asked for in more and more places. A pair of Brennan Center analyses examine these systems with an eye toward privacy and transparency.

During recent oral arguments for a much-anticipated Supreme Court case with massive implications for Second Amendment rights, Justice Samuel Alito posed a question reflecting a commonly held belief in gun rights circles — that the Second Amendment is viewed by the courts as a “second-tier constitutional right.” Dozens of the briefs filed for the case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, use this premise to argue that a century-old New York gun restriction should be struck down, placing existing gun restrictions in jeopardy. Law professors Joseph Blocher and Eric Ruben find, however, that it is little more than a rhetorical flourish as no strong empirical evidence exists for this argument.

Justice on the Brink: 12 Months that Transformed the Supreme Court
Wednesday, December 1 // 6–7 p.m. ET
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a seismic shift in the history of the Supreme Court, cementing a conservative majority on the bench as the country experienced a pandemic, a divisive presidential election, and the Capitol insurrection. In her new book, Linda Greenhouse provides a behind-the-scenes look at the 12 months that reshaped the Supreme Court and the years of conservative activism behind the rise of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. RSVP today.