The redistricting process is in full swing, but we’re far from a complete assessment of its results, with some states having finalized maps and many others just getting started. A new Brennan Center analysis presents five early takeaways, and the indicators are troubling.

In one increasingly common tactic, map drawers take pieces of more diverse, suburban communities and join them with heavily rural — and more reliably Republican — districts. This new map shows how Texas’s 13th congressional district has now been stretched from a north Dallas suburb all the way to the Texas Panhandle:

Gerrymandered maps like these distort the democratic process and harm representation for suburban, urban, and rural voters alike. They’re also important reminders of the dire need for redistricting reforms at the state and federal level, like those included in the Freedom to Vote Act and other bills.

As places around the country test new ideas to correct for the needless cruelty that defines American prisons, it’s important to look at what has worked abroad. The newest installment from the Brennan Center’s Punitive Excess series details several visits by American criminal justice officials to prisons in Northern Europe that prioritize respect and support for incarcerated individuals. These stories invite us all to expand our view of what’s possible and imagine American prisons centered on human dignity.

Impeachment has repeatedly failed to serve as a check against presidential abuses of power, as most recently demonstrated by the 2020 and 2021 impeachments — and subsequent Senate acquittals — of President Donald Trump. New Brennan Center research analyzes the history of impeachment from the Federalist Papers to the present day, and it finds that our polarized politics and unhealthy democratic system are at fault for the process’s dysfunction.

American Promise Connect: The People’s Constitution
Monday, December 6 // 7–8 p.m. ET
American Promise advocates for a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform. This event will feature John Kowal and Wilfred Codrington III discussing the possibilities and their new book, The People’s Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union. RSVP today.

We’re looking at the ways in which state legislatures around the country have made it difficult for Native American voters to cast their ballots. The Native American Voting Rights Act has been added to the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and aims to reverse some of these issues. Read more on Instagram >>