The Department of Justice announced yesterday that it is suing Texas, alleging that the state’s redistricting plan violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Michael Li and Julia Boland describe just how Texas did it, their changes in strategy from the last redistricting round, and what it will take to ensure fair representation in the state. “While Texans wait on courts and Congress, Texas will have one of the least competitive maps in the nation, and its booming communities of color once again will be shut out of their fair share of power,” they write. Read more

Tomorrow, the Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments in Ohio Organizing Collaborative v. Ohio Redistricting Commission, a case brought by the Brennan Center and our partners challenging unfairly gerrymandered state legislative maps, which the commission adopted in violation of a 2015 constitutional amendment. Two new Brennan Center analyses feature the perspectives of two of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs — the Ohio Environmental Council and the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) — on why they’re fighting these unfair maps. “Ohioans, particularly members of religious and racial minority communities, deserve maps that work for the collective good rather than the interests of one political party. It is now up to the Ohio Supreme Court to ensure that this becomes reality,” CAIR-Ohio’s Tala Dahbour writes. Read more

Congress is expected to pass its annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), as lawmakers work to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill. Elizabeth Goitein and Joseph Nunn explain how, in stark contrast to the other 53 National Guards in the United States, the DC National Guard is entirely under the president’s command. This raises serious concerns about opportunities for presidential abuse of military power and the limits to action in situations like the Capitol insurrection. The House version of the NDAA would grant the nation’s capital control over its own National Guard — lawmakers must pass a final version of the bill that does so as well. “If they do that, they will have performed a valuable service for our democracy and for the city in which it sits,” they write. Read more

2021 was an eventful year for the influence of money in politics. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy presents 21 lessons from the last year on the state of American campaign finance, from growing corporate influence to the risks posed to crucial regulations, and looks ahead to 2022. “Hopefully in the new year, corporations will back democracy more robustly, including by supporting the passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” she writes. Read more

• Michael Li on gerrymandering in the suburbs // NEW YORK TIMES
• Daniel Weiner on Trump’s “unusual” funding of Republican candidates // DAILY BEAST
• Wendy Weiser on unchecked power in state legislatures // WASHINGTON POST