Background Briefing: November 25, 2020
The Supreme Court’s Radical View of Election Law and Rollback of Voting Rights
We begin with the losing streak by Trump’s legal team of Giuliani now minus Sidney Powell, who was just fired which in itself is saying something, given how low the bar is to be hired by Trump. But in spite of Trump’s setbacks in courts, the Supreme Court is stepping in to make it harder to vote as the justices quietly and dramatically roll back American’s voting rights in ways that could do permanent harm. Wendy Weiser, who directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where she founded and directed the center’s Voting Rights and Elections Project which has protected the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of citizens in recent years. joins us to discuss her article at Politico Magazine, “The Supreme Court’s “Breathtakingly Radical” New Approach to Election Law.”
Hunger Among America’s Children at Thanksgiving
Then on this Thanksgiving eve as Americans prepare for tomorrow’s meal, we examine hunger in America and particularly among our children as the pandemic worsens, causing more unemployment as low-income breadwinners on the front lines get ill, lose their jobs and can’t feed their families. Joining us is Lauren Bauer, a Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and an associate with The Hamilton Project where her research focuses on social and safety net policies, including on federal nutrition assistance programs and education. She is the lead author of a new study at The Hamilton Project, “Hungry at Thanksgiving: A Fall 2020 Update on Food Insecurity in the U.S.”
With Pompeo as the Global Arsonist, Can Biden Put Out the Fires?
Then finally we speak with Jacob Silverman, contributing writer for The New Republic covering tech and national security. He’s the author of Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection and is a contributing editor for The Baffler where he writes about the politics of tech, privacy, surveillance, and media. He joins us to discuss his latest article at The New Republic, “Mike Pompeo Is a Global Arsonist. Can Biden Put Out His Fires?“