Often reduced to a simple dream, Dr. King's life and work represent the full tapestry of our collective fight for freedom for all people, particularly Black and brown people and poor people, who have been excluded from—or pushed to the margins of—our economy and democracy.
The Supreme Court today turned back a constitutional challenge to spending limits for student government campaigns at the University of Montana, denying review of a June 2007 ruling by the Ninth Circuit that upheld the limits. The Supreme Court's action is a victory for the Associated Students of the University of Montana ("ASUM") and the University, which argued that the limits on campaign spending serve to assure all students, regardless of their financial circumstances, an equal opportunity to win election to student government.
In her latest piece, Dēmos President Taifa Smith Butler imagines what it will take for us to build forward, guided by the principles that Dr. King described as the “beloved community.”
Ending birthright citizenship would deprive millions of Americans of their foundational right to a representative government and would fundamentally alter and degrade the democratic equality that all citizens enjoy.
At a time when democratic norms are under authoritarian attack and concentrated power threatens to drown out people’s voices, Stephen Heintz, one of Dēmos’ founding presidents, reminds us why the work of building a multiracial democracy and inclusive economy remains as urgent—and as possible—as ever.
More than 815,000 Alabamians are missing from the electoral process. In this report, Stand Up Mobile, Dēmos, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice examine who's missing, why, and what Alabama must do to fix it.
In a new report, Stand Up Mobile, Dēmos, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice expose the barriers pushing more than 815,000 Alabamians out of the electoral process — and offer commonsense solutions to bring them back in.
In the second piece of the series, Dēmos co-founder David Callahan takes us back to the late 1990s—a moment that appeared prosperous on the surface yet held deeper warning signs.
Former Dēmos president Heather McGhee reflects on how the organization grew from a small experiment in policy advocacy into something more distinctive: a multi-issue “think and do” tank.
From protesting outside a courthouse to shaping policy inside the White House, former Dēmos president Sabeel Rahman learned a defining lesson during his tenure: transformational change must begin with people power.
Charged with both honoring Dēmos’ legacy and looking to the future, current president Taifa Smith Butler closes the Presidents’ Series by reflecting on the present moment and what it calls us to do.
In a sense, this is not a surprise. This administration has made it clear that it will attack, persecute, and villainize any person, organization, or group that decries its actions and tries to hold it to account.
"The Court has effectively stripped Black, Latino, Native American, Asian American and other voters of color of the most powerful protection against racial discrimination in redistricting."
New York, NY — In communities across the country, voters could be subject to intimidation and a variety of suppressive tactics meant to keep them from casting a ballot. Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy center, published the details of these potential challenges to voting rights in a new briefing paper this week.
This brief examines what the Supreme Court's Callais decision means for communities of color, what has already changed in its wake, and what reforms — from state voting rights acts to proportional representation — can meet this moment.
