Events

State legislatures and redistricting commissions in every state except Montana have drawn new district maps. However, many states, particularly in the South where the absence of Section 5 coverage of the Voting Rights Act unleashed a torrent of racial gerrymandering efforts, still face legal challenges to the new lines.

Starting in October, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing three redistricting cases on appeal by state legislatures in Alabama, Louisiana, and North Carolina that could have profound implications for redistricting as well as voting rights. They are Merrill v. Milligan (Alabama); Ardoin v. Robinson (Louisiana); and Moore v. Harper (North Carolina). The Alabama and Louisiana cases present challenges to the Voting Rights Act. The North Carolina case presents a novel argument that under the U.S. Constitution, state courts do not have the ability to review redistricting actions by their state legislatures–even for compliance with state constitutions and laws. This theory would remove any state court check against illegal actions by state legislatures related to elections, making it easier for state politicians to suppress the vote, draw rigged maps, and cast doubt on election results.

Presenters will explain the implications of these three important cases and discuss how advocates and funders around the country can engage in the fight for fair representation.

Cosponsored by Fair Representation in Redistricting, State Infrastructure Fund, and Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation

Join us for a conversation with Campaign Legal Center (CLC) democracy advocates and other special guests to sound the alarm on the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts and what its troubling decisions mean for democracy. Together, they’ll talk about the upcoming cases that could dramatically alter the course of our democracy and the immediate and long-term impact of these decisions.

Midterm elections are Nov. 8. Are you prepared to be a watchdog for disabled voters in your communities? What is your newsroom doing to ensure your election coverage is useful and accessible for disabled voters? How are you covering voter rights and accessibility leading up to and on Election Day?

More than 61 million Americans live with disabilities, yet they remain underrepresented in journalism produced by U.S. newsrooms. As a decisive midterm election approaches, recent coverage shows state and local measures intend to: reduce voting by absentee ballot, limit access at polling locations, and limit information explaining how people with disabilities can cast their ballots.

On Friday, Oct. 14 at 11:30 ET, join the National Press Club Journalism Institute for a virtual discussion among experts in voter access, disability representation, and accessible news coverage on best practices to cover disabled voters and to highlight voting access issues they may face. Registration for this program is open; it will take place on Zoom.

Panelists include:

Thomas Hicks, Chairman of the United States Election Assistance Commission
Jessica Huseman, Editorial director for VoteBeat
Hannah Wise, Central Region Audience Development Editor for McClatchy and creator of Disability Matters, a toolkit to help newsrooms to better serve the disability community

Wendy Lu, senior staff editor on the Flexible Editing desk at The New York Times, will moderate the discussion. Lu is also a global speaker on disability representation in the media.

We hope you’ll join us for this important conversation, supported with funding from the Gannett Foundation. Please email Beth Francesco, deputy executive director for the Institute, with questions.