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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. 

The legal teams taking two gerrymandering cases to the Supreme Court will preview their strategies and path to victory at third annual Common Cause redistricting conference. Voting rights experts agree momentum is in their favor as they aim to revolutionize redistricting before the 2020 Census.

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 the removal of the citizenship question will help ensure that occurs. The citizenship question would have driven down participation, resulting in undercounts that would have undermined the fundamental constitutional principal of equal representation.

This is an opportunity to hear directly from the legal teams who will argue against partisan gerrymandering at the U.S. Supreme Court and the activists and academics who are paving the way for fair maps, said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for Common Cause.