Media Center

The fundamental right of every American to vote has been under attack since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its Shelby County decision. It is more than symbolic that today’s reintroduction of the Voting Rights Advancement Act comes just days before the fourth anniversary of that decision; it is desperately needed to stem the rising tide of voter intimidation and suppression efforts enacted across the country.

The Supreme Court's decision this morning to hear Gill v. Whitford is good news for the millions of Americans currently being denied the right to elect representatives of their choosing thanks to partisan gerrymandering. By upholding the decision of a three-judge federal panel that the Wisconsin State Assembly map legislators approved following the 2010 census is an illegal partisan gerrymander the Court can end the excessive partisan manipulation of district lines across the country. Common Cause v. Rucho, a challenge to North Carolina's congressional map on partisan grounds, is also making its way through the courts and will be heard by a three-judge panel on June 26.

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the emergency stay motion filed by public interest groups, including the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Free Press, Common Cause, Media Alliance, and United Church of Christ, OC, Inc., which sought to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its decision to reinstate the so-called UHF discount. This will allow the FCC to make it easier for the nation’s largest television ownership groups to acquire additional stations, and crowd out diverse and local voices. The groups are represented by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. Despite this interim ruling, the Court will hear the appeal later this year.

The Public Interest Law Center filed a lawsuit in state court today on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and individual voters challenging the state’s congressional districts as an illegal partisan gerrymander. League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of a series of suits nationwide challenging extreme partisan gerrymanders that have left millions of Americans with no opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. Plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania suit argue that the state’s congressional map violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. Common Cause Pennsylvania, a leader in the Fair Districts PA coalition, played a key role in the recruitment of several individual plaintiffs. An individual plaintiff lives in each of the state’s 18 congressional districts.

Few people have ever walked through the doors of the Federal Communications Commission with as much knowledge, experience, and good judgement as Jessica Rosenworcel. I know from personal experience that she is among the most capable ever to hold the title of Commissioner, and her return to the Commission could not come at a more propitious time. With the Open Internet, media localism, and diversity all under threat, the public interest has never needed a public interest servant of her caliber so acutely. I urge Congress to confirm her with dispatch.

Reports that Capitol Police officers may have been directed to obstruct reporter access in Capitol are deeply disturbing. American democracy depends on an adversarial press, but recently press freedom has been under attack as rarely before.