The Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and the president has virtually no role in the process. Yet President Trump ignored this fact and issued an executive order in March that aims to overhaul the nation’s election systems. His administration is dismantling a federal agency responsible for protecting election security. And it has targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, while supporting those who undermine elections, including the January 6 rioters.

A new report from the Brennan Center connects the dots between these unprecedented, and in some cases illegal, moves.

Listen to host Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center discuss the report’s findings with Sean Morales-Doyle, Director, Voting Rights and Elections Program and Jasleen Singh, Counsel, Voting Rights and Elections Program.

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Recorded on September 18, 2025.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing, at https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing.

The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to repair, revitalize, and defend our systems of democracy and justice so they work for all Americans. The Brennan Center cannot support or oppose any candidate for office.

Challenges to democracy intensified over the summer. The National Guard deployed in California. The Supreme Court ruled on presidential power using the shadow docket. In Texas, an egregious gerrymander has set off a partisan war nationally. Now the fall will mark the next phase of the fight for the Constitution. Will the rule of law hold? How will the 2026 election unfold?

Brennan Center experts discuss some of the biggest news stories of the past three months and explore what will come next in the struggle to uphold democratic values.

Speakers:

• Kareem Crayton, Vice President for Washington, DC

• Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Senior Director, Justice Program

• Elizabeth Goitein, Senior Director, Liberty and National Security Program

• Hernandez Stroud, Senior Fellow, Justice Program

• Wendy Weiser, Vice President, Democracy Program

• Daniel I. Weiner, Director, Elections and Government Program

• Moderator: Michael Waldman, President and CEO

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Recorded on September 4, 2025.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing, at https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing.

In 1965, a nonviolent voting rights march in Alabama culminated in a brutal televised brutal attack by state police. The public outrage that followed prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, a law meant to dismantle racially discriminatory barriers to voting. Since then, this landmark civil rights law has faced continued attacks. The Supreme Court has weakened its protections, most notably in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder. And just this summer, a lower court ruling in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Howe blocked voters in seven states from using the Voting Rights Act to challenge racially discriminatory voting practices.

The Supreme Court has put that decision on hold for the moment while it considers whether to take up the case. But the very fact that we're celebrating a pause on the near destruction of the Voting Rights Act’s last remaining protection illustrates how bad things have gotten in the courts. Thankfully, courts don’t have the only say. The 15th Amendment gives Congress the power to safeguard the right to vote through legislation. This conversation explores the history of the Voting Rights Act, its impact on voters today, and what it will take to ensure fair representation for all.

Speakers:

• Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

• Sean Morales-Doyle, Director, Brennan Center Voting Rights and Elections Program

• Lenny Powell, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund

• Nikema Williams, U.S. Representative (D-GA)

• Moderator: Natalie Tennant, Kanawha County Commissioner; Former West Virginia Secretary of State

  
  

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Recorded on August 19, 2025.
Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing, at https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing.

In his new book Outbreak Behind Bars: Spider Bites, Human Rights, and the Unseen Danger to Public Health, physician and epidemiologist Dr. Homer Venters reveals the grave reality of how infections and diseases spread in correctional facilities, which are often overcrowded and unsanitary. Detailing first-hand accounts of the spread of tuberculosis, MRSA, and other infections, he shines a light on the critical need to improve health care behind bars.

Venters was the chief medical officer of the New York City jail system and is currently a federal monitor of health services in jails and prisons.

Listen to him in conversation with Dr. Josy Hahn, senior research fellow, manager, and social epidemiologist in the Brennan Center’s Justice Program.

Recorded on July 28, 2025.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing, at https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing.

The executive branch has amassed tremendous power, challenging the constitutional balance among branches of government. This year alone, the president has ignored the laws passed by Congress to fire leaders of independent agencies without cause, freeze the spending of appropriated funds, and deploy the military as a domestic police force.

Supporters of vast presidential power have a name for this: the unitary executive. It’s the idea that the Constitution gives the president full personal control over the executive branch and wide latitude to act unilaterally. While legal scholars debate its scope, the theory in its most expansive form envisions a king-like president largely unconstrained by Congress or the courts. An embrace of this theory by the executive branch and Supreme Court could carry far-reaching consequences for American democracy.

This conversation among experts examines the modern presidency, the origins of the unitary executive theory, and its implications for the future of checks and balances.

Speakers:

• Samuel Breidbart, Counsel, Brennan Center Democracy Program

• Jane Manners, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

• Julian Davis Mortenson, James G. Phillipp Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

• Cristina Rodríguez, Deputy Dean and Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law, Yale Law School

• Moderator: Wilfred U. Codrington III, Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

  
  

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Recorded on August 5, 2025, and produced in partnership with State Court Report.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing

President Trump has ordered cuts to the Department of Education and federal education funding. The brunt of these cuts will likely fall on low-income communities. The president is also demanding changes to school services and curricula, including the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

State courts and constitutions stand in the president’s way. States are required by their constitutions to provide a public education, and many must meet certain standards, teach certain curricula, and provide student services. In cases where these state obligations conflict with the administration’s orders, both state and federal judges may be called on to decide whether state law provides a bulwark against harmful federal policies. This conversation among experts explores how the Trump administration’s actions have affected schools, how schools are responding, and how court fights over education policy may play out.

Speakers:

• John B. King Jr., Former U.S. Secretary of Education; Chancellor of the State University of New York

• Aaron Saiger, Professor of Law, Fordham University

• Martha Dalton, Journalist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

• Moderator: Alicia Bannon, Director, Brennan Center Judiciary Program; Editor in Chief, State Court Report

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Recorded on July 15, 2025, and produced in partnership with State Court Report.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing

The end of the 20th century saw the rise of mass incarceration as well as originalism, the idea that judges must interpret the Constitution according to its supposed original intent. In a new book, Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, legal scholar Rachel Barkow highlights the conflict between the two.

Using six Supreme Court cases, she shows how mass incarceration is at odds with the Constitution’s text and original meaning. In this event, Barkow and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who spent eight years overseeing federal prosecutions in Manhattan, discuss what the cases in Justice Abandoned teach us about today’s Supreme Court, including the long-term ramifications of sacrificing the liberty guaranteed by the Constitution in the name of public safety.

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Speakers:

• Rachel Barkow, Charles Seligson Professor of Law, Faculty Director of Zimroth Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, NYU School of Law

• Preet Bharara, Former U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York; Partner, WilmerHale

• Moderator: Hernandez Stroud, Senior Fellow, Brennan Center Justice Program

  
  

Recorded on June 05, 2025.

In Justice Abandoned, Rachel Barkow exposes how the Supreme Court’s embrace of originalism helped erode constitutional protections and fuel mass incarceration — a must-read for anyone who cares about our Constitution and criminal justice reform. You can find the book here.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing

This term, the Supreme Court addressed some of the biggest challenges in its history, with a president determined to break through the constitutional limits of executive power and the Court’s own public approval near all-time lows. Did the justices stand up for the Constitution on the biggest issue facing the country, the extraordinary executive power grab?

Against this backdrop, the justices handed down rulings in key cases affecting millions of people’s lives, including access to health care, education, and political representation and the power of federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions.

Whether you follow the Court closely or are looking to understand its role in our system of checks and balances, this discussion will provide essential context for how the Court is working today.

Speakers:

• Joyce Vance, Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law, University of Alabama School of Law; Senior Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice

• Cecillia Wang, National Legal Director, ACLU

• Kim Wehle, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law

• Moderator: Alicia Bannon, Director, Brennan Center Judiciary Program and Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court

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Recorded on July 09, 2025.

Keep up with the Brennan Center’s work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing: https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing