Abuse of Power

The lifting of bans on former president Trump by Twitter and Facebook hammers home the point that there is little interest from social media platforms in combating election disinformation. The platforms are scaling back content moderation at a time when consistent enforcement of civic integrity policies can be most impactful. The next year is pivotal, not just in state legislatures but for people's attitudes toward democracy and the information they receive about it.

“If we want a democracy that works for everyone, we should be making it harder for money to influence politics and easier for eligible voters to register and cast their ballot, but this bill gets it backwards,” said Amy Keith, program director of Common Cause Florida.

“These bills seem to be wanting to prosecute widespread voter fraud, yet there’s no evidence for these being needed right now other than conjecture or partisan politics,” said Katya Ehresman, the voting rights program manager for Common Cause Texas. She said that often lawmakers like Paxton in Texas use the biannual legislative session to “create political theater” that will help them in their bids for re-election. “It’s largely a problem in search of a solution, especially as less than 18 months ago, both chambers agreed that a felony is not the level of penalty needed for these election issues,” Ehresman said. “We’re really worried that it’s an example of bad faith partisan attempts to subvert our elections and to create additional intimidation around our elections.”

Mia Lewis, associate director of the voting rights organization Common Cause Ohio, questioned why the change was needed. “Our secretary of state has said for years that Ohio runs model elections, setting a standard for the entire country, and yet suddenly there’s a desire to change them,” she said. “It’s perfectly legitimate to ask what’s driving these sudden changes.”

Back in 2011, he updated years of his financial disclosure reports to include employment details for his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas. The updates came after the watchdog group Common Cause raised red flags. Thomas said the employment information was “inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions.” Despite Thomas having acknowledged the error and amended his filings, Common Cause wasn’t impressed and suggested it didn’t add up. “Justice Thomas sits on the highest court of the land, is called upon daily to understand and interpret the most complicated legal issues of our day and makes decisions that affect millions,” Common Cause President Bob Edgar said at the time. “It is hard to see how he could have misunderstood the simple directions of a federal disclosure form.”

"Americans expect and deserve a fair and impartial Supreme Court and we need transparency in order to identify potential conflicts and to restore public trust in our nation’s highest court,” Common Cause co-president Marilyn Carpinteyro said earlier this week, before the latest revelation. "The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly proven itself incapable of policing itself without a code of ethics."