Elizabeth Banks

You know you've made it when:

"An American Problem" is now available for pre-order at online bookshops! The project traces the rise of the Voting Rights Act. And then we show all the ways that SCOTUS's Shelby County decision has been a disaster. As the Court considers attacking the VRA again this term, we hope it's insightful.

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YOU GUYS WE WROTE A FUCKING BOOK

1) Today’s SCOTUS argument in Watson v. RNC on whether the longstanding practice of counting mail-in ballots sent by or before Election Day is legal failed to center the impact ending this practice would have on voters of color. LDF, @LawyersComm & others briefed this issue.

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Widespread voter fraud is not a thing. It has been repeatedly and conclusively debunked by researchers. People unable or unwilling to recognize this face do not deserve to be in positions of political influence.

Imagine dating someone, falling in love, and then driving with them for the first time only to discover they're the sort of person who cuts to the front of exit lane backups

Will you count me in... A district that doesn't unfairly favor white voters?

I know I should stay in my own lane but it's frustrating to see law faculty taking seriously and debating an argument that boils down to understanding US citizenship as a privilege granted by the sovereign that the exec-branch-as-sovereign can withdraw at will. It's simply NOT.

Time to once again load up this year's Patron Saint of the VRA to ward off evil spirits for tomorrow www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWGq...

Here's Mike Lee coming after this study on the floor of the Senate last night. I'll let you work out what the implications of this line of reasoning are for, uh, all of survey-based social science research / the BLS / etc

Ten years ago (!!) I quit my RA-ship at the NY Fed early and was told I would have no future in research for doing so. Anyways, no one knows anything, do what you want

As the Senate preps to debate the SAVE Act, some research I've done w @brennancenter.org to add context 1. We surveyed (with UMD and VoteRiders) Americans to understand who doesn't have easy access to proof of citizenship. The answer? 21.3m! (This number has gotten a lot of play; this is the source)

as we wait for Callais to drop (maybe as early as Friday), don't forget that it matters A LOT MORE than just for Congress (boltsmag.org/voting-right...)

The SAVE Act will disenfranchise Black, brown, low income, and female voters. 21 million of us can't easily access our citizenship documents and 69 million married women who have taken their spouse's name do not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name.

As the Senate preps to debate the SAVE Act, some research I've done w @brennancenter.org to add context 1. We surveyed (with UMD and VoteRiders) Americans to understand who doesn't have easy access to proof of citizenship. The answer? 21.3m! (This number has gotten a lot of play; this is the source)

The new V-Dem report was released today. There are dramatic declines in democracy in the US. Much worse than during Trump I.

Shocked, I tell you

The last time the 13th of March fell on a Friday was 2020 — and my first day working from home that year *shudder*

This is a very misleading push alert. Florida already has voter ID; this is a requirement to prove your citizenship when registering to vote. It’s a one-time thing but it’s also logistically much more complex.

Spent the afternoon reading and writing about the Ocoee Massacre and I can't tell you how fucked up it is that there are so many voting-related acts of terror in this country. One to illustrate any point

Whaddya know, my last dissertation paper is now formally published www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Had a great conversation with @perrybaconjr.bsky.social about what we can learn from the past 14 months of Trumpism in power - and why Trump’s authoritarian desires are limitless, but his ability to impose them on the country is very much not:

Talented & Gifted programs were a mistake

I'd missed this paper but it looks very cool. Districted local elections -> better representational outcomes along measures of class www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

12 miles in Harriman and saw exactly one other person

Here's what I'm thinking about on this big anniversary day for the Voting Rights Act (Selma + SCOTUS affirmation in 1966) and as we wait for this term's VRA case to come down:

Enrique Tarrio and other Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Trump pardoned them. Tarrio and his men planned the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Tarrio even claimed credit for it, messaging others: “Make no mistake…We did this…” Now he’s meeting with Sec. Rubio.

American democracy began in 1965. It will end in 2026 when the Roberts Court overturns the Voting Rights Act.

The VRA was passed five months *to the day* after Selma. Hard to imagine Congress moving so quickly today

This sounds awfully recently familiar.

Yes, history is repeating itself in a horrible way, but we must meet that threat with the courage and leadership we witnessed during the Civil Rights Movement. Together, we can repeat the best of our history, draw inspiration from those that sacrificed so much. and save our democracy!

“Our research shows that, over the half-century period in which this section of the Voting Rights Act was in effect, thousands of racially discriminatory voting policies were stopped before they could go into effect. But no longer.”

Sixty years ago, the Supreme Court upheld the Voting Rights Act to protect Americans of all races, ethnicities, and language backgrounds from discriminatory election rules. Even if today’s justices refuse to do the same, we must continue the fight to protect the vote. bit.ly/4lagoMy

Exactly right. The Civil Rights Division was able to show that it took exhaustive (and exhausting) work to litigate even the most obvious violations of the voting rights protections in the 1957 and 1960 acts, which ultimately convinced Congress and then SCOTUS that a much broader law was needed.

Sad news

Tomorrow marks the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. It also marks the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court first upholding the Voting Rights Act. We have gotten so, so far away from a Court that cares about democracy. New from me at @brennancenter.org:

This line from the majority opinion always sticks with me: "After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress might well decide to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims."

I'm back on this hobbyhorse and have cleaned up the resentment models. But look at this: while resentment cleanly predicts timing in uptake of the Big Lie, ideology / PID / education / income don't. At all.

No Callais this morning. Methinks the Court likes the drama a little too much. We know what DAYS decisions will come, but not WHICH ONES?

Even by his standards Alito’s opinion in NY redistricting case last night was totally unhinged. If he’s writing majority opinion in Voting Rights Act case that’s very very bad news www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

So many cities are going to adopt at large schemes

💯. The vast majority of Section 2 claims involve local governments, like city councils, county commissions/boards of supervisors and school boards, according to my empirical study. The Dillard litigation in AL alone involved almost 200 local governmental entities. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I don't mean to pick on this person, but I'm begging folks to recognize that Sec 2 does most of its work at the local level. While pre clearance was operative, 50% of all blocked policies were *local vote dilution schemes*. Congress matters but local politics are the ballgame here

Just an unbelievably bad concurrence from Alito

Kicking around a backpacking trip in the Adirondacks this summer. Despite living in NYC for 11 years I've never made it up there. Any favorite routes or areas within the region you especially love??

As we prepare to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Selma on Saturday, don't forget that it's also another anniversary date: the 60th of South Carolina v Katzenbach, in which SCOTUS unanimously and emphatically upheld the Voting Rights Act. It took the movement and it took the Court to make it real