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Tonight, under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s direction, Senate Republicans did profound damage to the Senate and the Supreme Court of the United States. They subverted the serious and deliberative constitutional obligation that we (and many others) called on them to uphold just 38 days ago. Instead, they rushed through Committee hearings and made a mockery of advice-and-consent by ramming Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination through to a lifetime appointment only eight days before Americans finish voting and after more than 60 million Americans have already voted. In so doing, Senate Republicans excused her incomplete answers to basic questions—demurring on whether “climate change is happening” (it is) and whether voter intimidation violates federal law (it does). They smothered Justice Ginsburg’s “most fervent wish” that her replacement be considered after the election. And they did so at the expense of millions of Americans suffering from the coronavirus pandemic who desperately needed the Senate to negotiate and pass COVID relief legislation.

Heading into the final stretch of voting season, Common Cause, in partnership with the Election Protection coalition and the Digital Defense League, is launching a Voting Anti-Disinformation Week of Content as part of its Stopping Cyber-Suppression program. Partner organizations across the voting rights, civil rights, and public interest sector will be pushing out content on social media focused on election integrity, what people can do to stop disinformation, and why we must count every vote in this election. Additionally, Common Cause is launching a six-figure paid media campaign focused on urging people to be prepared to wait for election results and the need to let local election officials count every vote.

Facebook has demanded that New York University (NYU) shut down a research project that has been collecting data about the company’s ad-targeting practices. The NYU Ad Observatory, a project of the university’s engineering school, has recruited more than 6,500 volunteers - including many Common Cause members - to use a specially designed browser extension to collect data about the ads Facebook shows them. Facebook has informed NYU that the project violates provisions in its terms of service that prohibit bulk data collection from its site. The social media behemoth has threatened further enforcement action if NYU does not comply. In response, Common Cause has launched a petition drive urging the social media giant to let the program continue and instead shut down the rampant disinformation on the platform.

Today, an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court of the United States by Common Cause, The Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF), and Equal Citizens  challenged the State of Texas’ age restriction to apply for an absentee ballot in the midst of a pandemic. The case, Garcia v. Abbott (No. 19-1389) challenges a law that restricts young Americans from accessing no-excuse vote-by-mail while making it exclusively available to voters over the age of 65. In their amicus brief, the organizations argue that the unequal treatment of youth voters in the Texas vote-by-mail program violates the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which bans age discrimination while voting. 

Common Cause today released the results of its Our Democracy 2020 candidate surveys. More than 200 candidates for Congress, including in certain swing House and Senate races, responded on how they promise to defend and strengthen our democracy.