U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, otherwise known as the VRAA or H.R. 4 on Aug. 17, 2021. The Voting Rights Act had a long track record of earning overwhelming bipartisan support.

The House is expected to pass the bill the week of August 23. Then the pressure will be on the Senate to act.

Whatever...

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Pima County Recorder’s Office announced a settlement agreement has been reached in Pascua Yaqui Tribe v. Rodriguez on Aug. 16, 2021.  

This settlement represents a significant victory for the reservation’s 4,000 residents, ending a long-running dispute stemming from a controversial decision...

Sen. Rand Paul is far from the first member of Congress to violate the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a law created to give voters real time transparency into the financial interests of their elected officials.

So far this year, Campaign Legal Center has filed multiple complaints against members of Congress from both parties...

How does the U.S. Census data release impact the map drawing process that occurs once every 10 years? How do I know if my state is drawing a gerrymandered map? These are all questions being asked this week.

On Aug. 12, 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau released the data from the 2020 census which will be used to redraw voting districts across the...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released a report grading states on their 2021 legislative sessions on Aug. 11, 2021. This is the first report to zoom in on how states have changed their vote-by-mail and early voting laws this year, finding that seven states enacted restrictive laws in the first half of the year.

The report uses a 10-point scale to...

There are few provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) that regulate a narrower slice of campaign activity while simultaneously advancing a stronger anti-corruption interest than the post-election loan repayment limit challenged by Sen. Ted Cruz in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Until about two years ago, when the senator...

Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) and End Citizens United (ECU) sued the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Aug. 9, 2021 after the Commission deadlocked, dismissing ECU’s complaint regarding coordination between Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and a super PAC. 

ECU had filed a complaint with the FEC to hold Scott accountable for coordination with New...

In preparation for the August 16 release of redistricting data by the U.S. Census Bureau to the states, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is relaunching PlanScore.org, an empowering online tool to measure voting maps and evaluate them for partisan impact.

As the 2021 map drawing cycle heats up, PlanScore will collect and analyze new district plans as they...

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) officially took a preliminary—but important—step toward cracking down on the use of shell companies to hide campaign spending on Aug. 5, 2021.

The FEC is asking members of the public to comment on a request from Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and the Center on Science & Technology Policy at Duke University (CSTP)...

President Richard Nixon resigned from office just weeks after releasing Oval Office tape recordings that revealed the extent of his involvement in the Watergate scandal on this month in 1974. Amid that scandal, Nixon famously  declared: “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

But how did the...

By Grace Thomas, a Summer 2021 CLC intern

Like clockwork every even year, the first Tuesday of November is a national election day. Election Day was not randomly chosen though. In 1845, Congress selected the most convenient day to hold a national election day for the greatest number of voters at the time—farmers.

Since Saturdays and Sundays were...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed complaints with congressional ethics offices against three freshman members of Congress—Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) and Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT)—for failure to comply with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act on July 29, 2021.  

Under the STOCK Act, members of Congress...

When the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was last renewed in 2006, it received overwhelming support from both parties in Congress. Later this year, when the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is introduced, it should again receive bipartisan support because it would stop future racially discriminatory proposals from being enacted, thus protecting...

It is with much sadness that Campaign Legal Center (CLC) mourns the loss of Bob Moses, a civil rights hero and educator who registered thousands of Black voters and used a grassroots approach to organize and the build the political will to sign the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, which helped ensure equal access to the ballot for all Americans.

By Kevin Muench, a Summer 2021 CLC intern

During 2020, the U.S. held elections for some 470 seats in Congress and 5,875 state legislators, totaling over 159.7 million votes cast – a historic turnout for U.S. elections. But despite the record turnout, many voters faced barriers to participating due to difficulties registering to vote.

To make the...

In the case United States v. Nixon, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former President Richard Nixon must hand over audio tapes from the Oval Office. What followed was a series of events that would eventually confirm that he tried to cover up the Watergate scandal and lead him to resign from the office of the presidency less than a month later.  

StopSecretSpending.org, a product of Campaign Legal Center, is celebrating its 1st anniversary this summer. 

Amid the 2020 election cycle, the site was launched to help keep voters better informed regarding transparency and the First Amendment, solutions to stop secret spending by wealthy special interests and new regulations needed to stop...

Whatever our skin color, background or zip code, most of us believe that elections should be inclusive and accessible. 

However, many voters in our country encounter an election system that is inaccessible and presents burdensome barriers to making our voices heard. 

Whether we live in a small town or a big city, we need elections that voters can...

On July 19, 2021, the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a Senate field hearing in Atlanta, Georgia to build momentum to pass federal legislation that would enact national baseline standards for voting access. This was the committee’s first field hearing in 20 years, underscoring the importance of protecting Americans’ freedom...

By Nicholas Anway, a Summer 2021 CLC law intern

No matter our race, background or zip code, for our democracy to work for us all, it must include us all. Yet, since the 2020 election, some states are making it harder to vote, especially for Black, young and new Americans.

When politicians put up deliberate barriers to silence voters’ voices based...

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld two Arizona policies that a lower court had found discriminated against voters of color. This decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee is the latest effort by the Court’s majority to weaken the Voting Rights Act.

But while the decision makes it more difficult to bring and win...