Gerrymandering/Redistricting

Score one for the people. The House passed the For the People Act in the face of stiff opposition from K Street’s corporate lobbyists and special interests. The legislation truly is for the people, bundling together a comprehensive set of long-overdue democracy reforms at a time when democratic norms are under siege in our nation. Many of the reforms included in H.R. 1 are tested reforms that are working at the state and local level with bipartisan support to restore the rule of law, empower the voices of all Americans, curb abusive partisan gerrymandering, and strengthen the right to vote for every eligible American.

Today’s District Court ruling is a victory for equal representation for every resident of the United States. Americans expect and deserve a fair and accurate census and striking the citizenship question will help ensure that occurs.

Today, Common Cause urged every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the For the People Act (H.R. 1) when it goes to a floor vote on Friday. The letter notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote final passage of H.R. 1, as well as the motion-to-recommit (MTR), in our Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.2 million members. The bill contains the most comprehensive set of democracy reforms to be introduced in Congress since the post-Watergate reforms were passed in the 1970s. The letter emphasizes that our democracy faces a crisis not seen since the Watergate era.

Common Cause filed its final brief with the U.S. Supreme Court today, three weeks in advance of oral arguments in Rucho v. Common Cause. The case challenges an extreme Republican gerrymander in North Carolina that was found to be unconstitutional twice by a federal district court. 

“Now I’m elected, now I’m in, I got the power to draft, lobby and shape the laws that govern the United States of America. Fabulous,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Now, is there any hard limit that I have in terms of what legislation I’m allowed to touch…based on the special interests funds that I accepted?” “There’s no limit,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause. Ocasio-Cortzed continued, “I can be totally funded by oil and gas, totally funded by big pharma and come in and write pharma laws?” “That’s right,” Hobert Flynn said. Wrapping up, Ocasio-Cortez then added, “We have a system that is fundamentally broken.”