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The Briefing

When Robert Mueller testifies before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees tomorrow, it will be bracing to hear him read his report’s conclusion: “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” But the hearings will be a missed opportunity if it doesn’t lead Congress to get serious about preventing foreign interference in our elections. In fact, specific reforms are already in the works that would prevent foreign actors from tilting the outcome of the 2020 election. These protections are embodied in H.R. 1, the sweeping democracy reform bill passed by the House of Representatives in March. If implemented, H.R. 1 would directly address many of the vulnerabilities highlighted in the Mueller report, including disinformation and propaganda, weak election security, voter suppression, and obstruction of justice.

Mueller’s testimony also comes at a critical time in the appropriations process. The House recently passed an appropriations bill that includes $600 million in additional funding for states and local jurisdictions to use to bolster election security. Now it’s up to the Senate to do the same. Local election officials on the front lines of this issue have told the Brennan Center that they need the additional resources. ( For more on how Congress can defend our elections, see the Brennan Center's new election security paper below.)

Democracy

State Supreme Courts Don’t Reflect the Diversity of the Communities They Serve

Courts have tremendous power, and a diverse bench is critical to a justice system that lives up to its name — including in state courts, which hear 95 percent of all cases filed in the United States. But a new Brennan Center report, State Supreme Court Diversity, paints a bleak picture of the lack of racial and gender diversity on state supreme courts. For example, white men are dramatically overrepresented on state supreme court benches, while 18 states have never had a Black supreme court justice. The report also finds that judicial elections are a key inflection point to address racial diversity on the bench. // Read More

Trump’s Tweets Are More Than Words

In an unprecedented move, the House of Representatives voted last week to condemn President Trump for his racist tweet that suggested four congresswomen of color should “go back” to their home countries. Trump’s tweets and statements underscored the real purpose of the now-abandoned census citizenship question — to change political rules to disadvantage immigrant and nonwhite communities. “Those tweets will stoke bigotry, normalize hatred, and while we hope this isn’t true, create an atmosphere of at least incipient violence,” writes Brennan Center President Michael Waldman. “They’re vile. The House of Representatives is right to take them seriously.” // Read More

U.S. Elections Are Still Vulnerable to Foreign Hacking

Election officials warn that time is running out for Congress to bolster security before the 2020 race. Many election security projects at the state level remain unfunded or underfunded, according to Defending Elections, a new paper authored by a bipartisan group of organizations, including the Brennan Center, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, R Street Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. “Election security is national security, and we are only as strong as our weakest link,” said report co-author Liz Howard, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Congress must act now to ensure that states have what they need to fight back against any foreign attacks on our democracy.” // Read More

America’s Historic Fight Over Who Deserves Representation

Trump has given up his attempts to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census, vowing instead to use other methods to let states limit who gets counted when allocating political power. These efforts are “helping to revive an old fight that’s erupted at particularly xenophobic periods in American history,” writes Michael Li, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Indeed, in many ways, the move would recreate the disparities that existed before the Supreme Court’s reapportionment revolution of the 1960s, which for the first time saw courts intervene to strictly enforce equal-population requirements.” // Slate

News

Michael Li and Emmanuel Mauleón on experiences with being told to “go back to your country” // CBS News
Yurij Rudensky on calls for reform to New Jersey’s redistricting system // Politico
Thomas Wolf on the connection between Trump’s racist tweets and the president’s fearmongering about the census // Time

Have an issue you'd like us to cover? Feedback on this newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

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