This issue brief examines how the Census Bureau’s decision to use differential privacy to protect the confidentiality of the 2020 Census data will impact redistricting and voting rights.

On March 31, 2021, the district court issued an opinion declaring that Virginia Beach’s system of election violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of Black, Latino, and Asian American voters, enjoining the use of that system and granting the plaintiffs’ request for attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted an open letter calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to establish a new routine use exception that would enable the Federal Bureau of Prisons to share the data necessary to allow states and localities to implement two pro-democracy reforms: enacting universal enfranchisement and abolishing prison gerrymandering. The League of Women Voters and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs joined in support.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted testimony to support a bill that would abolish prison gerrymandering in Connecticut. The testimony stated that Connecticut’s system of prison gerrymandering distorts the redistricting process and deprives Connecticut communities of fair and equal representation.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) organized a coalition sign on letter of 11 organizations to oppose a bill that would reinstate prison-based gerrymandering in Maryland. The letter advocates for the protection of the “No Representation Without Population Act” – which was in danger of repeal – to ensure that incarcerated individuals are counted as residents in the place they lived prior to their imprisonment.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted testimony to oppose the repeal of the “No Representation Without Population Act”, which was being considered by the Maryland state legislature with S.B. 619. The testimony stated that reinstating prison-based gerrymandering in Maryland would distort the redistricting process and deprive Maryland communities of fair and equal representation.

This report by Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and the League of Women Voters empowers those interested in strengthening democracy at the state level with the tools and knowledge needed to ensure that their respective redistricting processes are transparent and accountable and ensures members of the public at-large and communities of interest can provide meaningful input during the redistricting cycle.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) developed a memo explaining how the democracy reforms in the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 1) are drawn from bills that have long had bipartisan political sponsorship at both the federal and state levels, and how H.R 1/S 1's provisions would address problematic practices employed by both Democrats and Republicans. 

In a series of explainers, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) shows how passing and signing into law H.R. 1 would improve our democracy by increasing election access and access to vote-by-mail, establishing independent redistricting commissions, promoting transparency in elections and digital ads, stopping foreign money in U.S. elections, creating a public financing system, enacting Federal Election Commission reforms, ending super PAC coordination, and creating an ethics pledge for senior executive branch officials. 

H.R.1, "For the People Act" was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This landmark legislation would: increase transparency of campaign spending; set up a system of small-donor matching funds for congressional candidates; revive the matching-fund system for presidential campaigns; expand conflict-of-interest laws; increase oversight of lobbyists; end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts; establish nationwide automatic voter registration; and reinforce the Voting Rights Act.

CLC submitted a statement of support for HR 1, the For the People Act of 2019, to Chairperson Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Rodney Davis of the Committee on House Administration in the United States House of Representatives. HR 1 is a landmark bill designed to address the most pressing challenges to our democracy, which are the four issues CLC focuses on: the influence of money in politics, the erosion of ethical norms, threats to voting rights, and extreme partisan gerrymandering.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) voices its strong support of the For the People Act in a letter to key House and Senate members and urges Congress to prioritize passage during the early days of the 117th Congress.