joe biden
September 29, 2021 -
Senate Democrats recently introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, a compromise alternative to the For the People Act, far-reaching pro-democracy legislation blocked by a Republican filibuster. If the GOP again uses the filibuster to obstruct the bill, Democrats say they'll take on reforming the Senate policy, which requires 60 votes to end debate on a measure. But that will require moving conservative Democrats like West Virginia's Joe Manchin, a filibuster defender who's also among the new bill's sponsors.
July 1, 2021 -
The president has nominated a record number of people of color to federal courts, but his choice to fill a vacancy on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from the Carolinas, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, is a white man.
June 15, 2021 -
Federal appellate courts in the Deep South are disproportionately white compared to the region's population, but President Joe Biden has pledged to diversify the courts with his nominations. Efforts to expand the region's mostly white state appellate courts could also lead to more diversity on the bench.
May 20, 2021 -
Following an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by far-right extremists, Republican lawmakers have introduced measures in Southern states and elsewhere across the country that could open the door to partisan election interference and vote manipulation.
March 24, 2021 -
U.S. senators are currently considering whether to eliminate, reform, or protect the filibuster. The parliamentary procedure that gives the minority outsized power has a long history of being used to undermine civil rights legislation — and it now threatens to derail a bold Democratic agenda that includes voting rights and other pro-democracy reforms.
March 10, 2021 -
Republican lawmakers nationwide have introduced over 250 bills this year to restrict voting access in 43 states — 39 bills in Georgia alone. Given the backlash against last year's record-breaking voter turnout playing out at the state level, voting rights advocates are looking to Congress and the promise of H.R. 1, which has now advanced to the U.S. Senate. But can it get past the filibuster?
January 29, 2021 -
Now in control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats motivated by the Jan. 6 extremist attack on the U.S. Capitol are determined to pass legislation that will combat the current threats to U.S. democracy and fortify election systems that have been undermined by voter suppression and misleading claims of election fraud.