Your regular reminder that the Supreme Court’s opinion giving presidents criminal immunity is not a serious decision for a serious democracy. @brennancenter.org www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/a...

Where are the checks and where is the balancing?

Among many things to note about January 6th is how Congress later came together in a bipartisan way to reform the antiquated Electoral Count Act and how Congress certifies the presidential election. I discussed this work a few years ago with Fordham Law. fordhamdemocracyproject.com/2022/12/26/r...

Demolishing campaign finance rules. Gutting the Voting Rights Act. Allowing gerrymandered congressional districts. It’s time for the ideologues on the Supreme Court to stop meddling in elections. bit.ly/4a7H8d8

Today Chief Justice Roberts will release the Supreme Court’s Year End report. SCOTUS set the conditions we are seeing in our democracy today. The presidential immunity ruling. Citizens United. Gutting the Voting Rights Act. Its decision to greenlight partisan gerrymandering. So what will he say?

But have their bee colonies been corrupted by Citizens United?

Judges are facing a barrage of threats and intimidation, just for doing their job. It's an attack on their safety, and also an attack on judicial independence. Watch this incredible video essay by Judge Salas, whose son was murdered by an aggrieved litigant. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...

An excellent roundup of top legal commentators’ thoughts on the biggest state constitutional cases of the year ⬇️

Catching up on SCOTUS arguments. Justice Sotomayor hits the nail on the head in this case that could further empower wealthy campaign donors to drown everyone else out. “Every time we interfere with Congressional design, we make matters worse.” See, e.g., Citizens United and McCutcheon.

If you're a SiriusXM subscriber tune into the POTUS channel where I'll be discussing Bush v. Gore shortly -- that case was decided 25 years ago today and changed the course of history.

While Bush v. Gore was a disaster for public confidence in the Supreme Court, the 2000 Florida recount crisis did spur some constructive election reforms. bit.ly/48F2YSP

1/ A few thoughts about @williambaude.bsky.social’s comment in yesterday’s NYT chat that, “It’s amazing how many of our problems today could be solved by a Congress that was willing and able to legislate in response to national problems.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/o...

Bush v. Gore was decided 25 years ago this week. Bush may have won the case, but Justice Stevens wrote that "the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.” www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

How Congress Should Respond, Right Now, to Trump’s Boat Strikes www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...

Today I learned that Buckley v. Valeo -- which turns 50 years old next year -- is the longest Supreme Court opinion ever written. The majority, concurrences, and dissents are as long as the first Harry Potter book, courtesy @scotusblog.com

A lot going on in my notifications

Citizens United unleashed a flood of corporate money in politics. State trigger laws can prepare the ground for real reform when the Court changes course. bit.ly/3Xsczat

State supreme courts are still overwhelmingly white & male ⚖️ 18 states: 0 justices of color ⚖️ 47 states + DC: 0 Native American justices ⚖️ 42 states: 0 Asian American justices ⚖️ 39 + DC: 0 Latino justices ⚖️ 24 states: 0 Black justices New @brennancenter.org analysis below👇👇

A strategy that helped antiabortion activists in their quest to overturn Roe v. Wade could also work for campaign finance reform: enacting state "trigger laws" that challenge the legitimacy of Citizens United. bit.ly/3Xsczat

Another day, another SCOTUS shadow docket decision. This time blocking transgender Americans from getting a passport consistent with their gender identity. SCOTUS says allowing such passports while litigation proceeds will create an "irreparable injury." Really? 1/

In Trump’s second term, the need for congressional action against corruption has never been clearer. Our latest report offers recommendations for strengthening the vital anti-corruption safeguards in the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses: bit.ly/3XdgCaq

The Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in the challenge to Trump’s worldwide tariffs. No matter how the Court rules (and I’ll do just a tiny bit of tea leaf-reading here), its decision will have enormous implications for the scope of presidential power. 1/25

eastern standard time in Shenandoah National Park this weekend 🍂

A win for democracy!

Spotted in Dupont Circle. And it’s true, trust in SCOTUS is hovering at record lows. 🪦🎃

The Trump administration filed another request on the Supreme Court's shadow docket, this time to let the president fire the head of the Library of Congress' copyright office. The DC Circuit blocked her removal. Our updated @brennancenter.org tracker is here: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Burnin’ Down the House www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/o...

States this year "are nearly on pace to match the number of restrictive voting laws enacted in 2021, when states enacted more restrictive legislation than at any other point so far in the 14 years the @brennancenter.org has tracked state voting legislation." www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Americans agree - 18 years for a Supreme Court term is long enough. Lifetime power is too long. www.newsweek.com/most-republi...

NEW: You've probably heard about the shadow docket. It's where the Supreme Court makes snap decisions as cases are ongoing in the lower courts. The Court has ruled overwhelmingly in favor of the Trump administration, often w/ little explanation at all. 1/ www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Judge Graber of the 9th Circuit with a stark message -- this is the case about the deployment of National Guard troops in Portland. "Above all, I ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Voters in six states will consider ballot measures this November. @erings.bsky.social shares what you need to know about what's on the ballot in @statecourtreport.org. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Read this terrific resource by my colleagues at the @brennancenter.org. "The Department of Justice’s Broken Accountability System—the Trump administration has dismantled its internal checks on abuses of power, and courts are grappling with the consequences." www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

AI-generated deepfakes are barreling toward an election near you. The danger is obvious. @amyklobuchar.com is leading a bipartisan bill w/ Senator Hawley, @coons.senate.gov, Senator Collins & @michaelbennet.bsky.social that would takes these deceptive ads head on. www.npr.org/2025/10/17/n...

Justice Kennedy also authored Citizens United and voted to gut the Voting Rights Act.

Must read: Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

I continue to believe that the GOP’s exercise of the nuclear option to allow en bloc confirmation of executive branch nominees is one of the most consequential and under-covered Hill stories of the year. There are now only 16 in the queue.

The Trump administration is pressuring states to hand over sensitive information about voters. The Brennan Center is tracking the DOJ’s requests and how states respond. bit.ly/3JFbKaB

🚨And Justice Jackson calls out the continued "grave misuse" of the emergency a/k/a shadow docket and its "repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance."

Saddened by Jane Goodall's death. I'm reminded by her remarks at @HaverfordEdu in 2004: "Hang on to what you have learned about your important role in this life. Every day, you make a difference by the way you behave, by the way you speak, above all by your actions."

📺Tune in now to the @brennancenter.org's "Democracy Day in Court" broadcast -- @mawaldman.bsky.social is moderating a discussion about big cases that the Supreme Court will be hearing this term, which gavels in on Monday. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGO...

This is extraordinary (see thread below)

Another Friday, another shadow docket decision from SCOTUS. Note too Justice Kagan’s sharp critique of the Court barreling its way to a decision “with scant briefing, no oral argument, and no opportunity to deliberate in conference.”

The last remaining Republican FEC Commissioner is resigning on October 3, making it the fourth vacancy of the six-member Commission. The FEC hasn't had a quorum since May, so there won't be a big difference in how the agency has been running. www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washing...

Yup.

SCOTUS is doing this via its shadow docket to revisit Humphrey's Executor - a 90 year old precedent about presidential power. As Justice Kagan writes in dissent, "[o]ur emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars." 1/

On the fifth anniversary of Justice Ginsberg's death, a reminder of something she once said. "We are not experiencing the best of times. I am optimistic in the long run. A great man once said the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle. It is the pendulum." 1/

Justice Brett Kavanaugh defended the Supreme Court’s use of unexplained emergency orders. Here’s why he’s wrong: bit.ly/4mzvX0p