Report Finds Frivolous Voter Eligibility Challenges Burden Election Administrators, Undermine Confidence in Elections, and Intimidate Voters Protect Democracy published Unraveling the Rise of Mass Voter Challenges, a new report that sheds light on the growth of mass challenges to voter eligibility orchestrated by election-denying organizations. The report examines...
This essay is a part of pop justice, Scalawag’s newsletter exploring the intersection of popular culture and justice—namely through abolition. Sign up here. Content Warning: This piece discusses physical and verbal abuse. When I heard that superstar and “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” Tina Turner passed away yesterday, the first thing I wanted...
As with any abuses of executive power, each branch of government must protect the Constitution against abusive exercises of the pardon power, including to deter abuses and to hold the president accountable in cases of abuse. The following outlines how each branch can and should do so. Putting Pardons in Check Each branch of government has constitutional tools at its...
This is the first excerpt of a two-part interview. Be sure to read the second part here. 1. Black Twitter has been largely responsible for being the cultural shaker for prominent online and in-person social movements like #OscarsSoWhite, #BlackLivesMatter, and #MeToo. In your opinion, why do you believe Black Twitter is so powerful in shifting online conversation? I...
In The Federalist No. 74, Hamilton describes the power to pardon as a “benign prerogative.” The absence of a clemency mechanism, Hamilton reasoned, would allow for a system of justice “too sanguinary and cruel.” The pardon power was therefore necessary to temper justice with mercy. Chief Justice John Marshall in United States v. Wilson similarly characterized a...
This is the second excerpt of a two-part interview. Be sure to read the first part here. 5. In 2014, your hashtag #YouOkSis went viral after you intervened with the phrase to a woman who had just been harassed on the street. How fulfilling was it for you to see your own hashtag spark discussion and make people think more critically about the gender-based harassment...