Mercury News: A state ethics commission on Thursday fined former Contra Costa County elections chief Joe Canciamilla $150,000 — one of its largest penalties of the year — for illegally spending $130,529 of campaign funds on a vacation in… Continue reading

I was in meetings for much of the day and just got around to reading the California Supreme Court’s unanimous decision (with one concurring Justice writing separately) in Patterson v. Padilla. The state high court holds that it violates a… Continue reading

WSJ: Alphabet Inc.’s Google said Wednesday it plans to stop allowing highly targeted political ads on its platform, further fragmenting the rules being set by Silicon Valley tech giants for guarding against misinformation.Google will roll out the ban within a… Continue reading

AP reports.

Steve Weissman oped: By reversing his long-held opposition to accepting assistance from super PACs — independent political groups turbocharged by unlimited contributions from well-heeled donors — Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden is wounding American democracy and jeopardizing his political… Continue reading

Release: The Andrew Goodman Foundation is suing the 6 members of the Wisconsin Elections Committee for restrictions imposed on the use of student IDs for voting. The law requires that a student ID include the issuance date, an expiration date… Continue reading

This is neat: Earlier this year, the Center for Public Integrity, USA TODAY and the Arizona Republic analyzed model statehouse bills to take the first nationwide accounting of how prolific copycat legislation has become.Today, the news organizations publicly released… Continue reading

Bloomberg Law reports.

Release: Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, together with the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Law Office of Robert McDuff, and law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Mississippi Immigrants… Continue reading

These all look very good: COLLECTION Election Reform As the first bill introduced in the current Congress, H.R. 1 seeks to revamp our democracy through sweeping electoral reforms. This Collection critiques small-donor-based public financing, argues for legislation mandating Election Day… Continue reading

NYT reports.

Release:  In partnership with several child rights organizations, Justice for Children and Youth (JFCY) and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights (Asper Centre) have secured case development funding from the Court Challenges Program, which helps finance cases of national… Continue reading

Steven Rosenfeld for Salon.

Release: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 150 other civil rights organizations released their policy platform, “Vision for Democracy: Fortifying the Franchise in 2020 and Beyond” today, marking the overwhelming support for comprehensive voting rights… Continue reading