The consequences of the voter suppression law Texas passed in 2021 are starting to become clear. Just one of its many restrictive provisions, which created onerous new requirements for mail voting, led to massive disenfranchisement in the state’s 2022 primary. And a new Brennan Center analysis shows that it had a particularly harsh impact on voters of color. In fact, we found that nonwhite voters were 30 percent more likely than white voters to have their mail ballot application or actual mail ballot rejected. Texas’s law is a prime example of how the wave of anti-voter laws spurred on by election fraud lies can keep significant numbers of Americans from casting their ballots.

As in past decades, the majority of congressional districts in the latest redistricting cycle were drawn through partisan-controlled processes. But in a promising sign for fair maps, two additional states used independent commissions to set district lines for the first time. A new Brennan Center resource details who was responsible for map drawing in each state and how this impacted political competitiveness.

In 2018, the First Step Act was celebrated as the biggest federal criminal justice reform legislation enacted in nearly a decade. It mandated long-overdue changes to excessively punitive federal sentencing laws and reforms aimed at improving prison conditions. But several years later, it’s still failing to benefit many of the people it is meant to help. A Brennan Center report assesses the structure of the law’s prison reforms, how they have been implemented, and what more can be done to achieve their potential.

The 2020 census failed to count 18.8 million people, with Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities going undercounted at disproportionate rates. Numbers like these can lead communities to lose out on fair representation and much-needed financial resources. Congress and the Census Bureau must implement equity-centered reforms to produce the accurate census that our democracy demands.

The Third Amendment, designed to protect colonial Americans from being forced to house British soldiers, has long been seen as a constitutional dead zone. Today, it remains the least litigated part of the Bill of Rights. In a wide-ranging discussion, Brennan Center Fellow Andrew Cohen and a University of Michigan law professor discuss whether this amendment could be revived in a new form for the modern day.