For decades, GDP has enjoyed supreme status as the predominant benchmark of our economic and social progress. In reality, GDP obscures or ignores essential aspects of Americans’ economic and social welfare, as well as important social and environmental dimensions of our national welfare and future well-being.
We can’t afford to let Wall Street keep taking us for a ride: Americans need a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to bring fairness and accountability to the financial sector.
NEW YORK -- On Friday, Dec 23, a federal three-judge panel unanimously upheld the constitutionality of Maryland’s landmark “No Representation Without Population Act,” which counts incarcerated people as residents of their legal home addresses for redistricting purposes.
When someone from another country goes through the difficult process of becoming a naturalized American citizen, he or she should be entitled to full participation in our nation's democracy.
BOSTON - Citing clear evidence that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is failing to provide low-income residents with a legally-mandated opportunity to register to vote, attorneys from Demos, Project Vote, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association sent a pre-litigation notice letter on December 8, 2011 to Secretary of State William F. Galvin, on behalf of New England United for Justice. The letter was also forwarded to the state’s human services officials.
Baltimore, MD – Strongly contending that the Republican-sponsored challenge to Maryland’s landmark 2010 civil rights law, the “No Representation Without Population Act,” runs directly contrary to its plaintiffs’ goal of increased representation for Maryland’s African-American community, a coalition of civil rights groups today announces that an amicus brief has been filed to counter misinformation and defend the landmark civil rights law.
Albany, NY – New York Supreme Court Justice Eugene Devine today upheld New York’s law ending prison-based gerrymandering in the Little v. LATFOR lawsuit. His decision squarely rejects the plaintiffs’ claim that the New York law violated various provisions of the New York State Constitution.
New York, NY—Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3463, a bill that would effectively terminate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and federal financing for presidential election campaigns. Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization committed to building an America which achieves its highest democratic ideals, vehemently opposes this legislation.
NEW YORK -- In a new analysis released today, national policy center Demos announced a major milestone in its work to build a more inclusive democracy: Across five states, more than one million additional low-income Americans, the most vulnerable of “the 99%”, have filled out voter registration forms at public assistance agencies since 2007.
A coalition of civil rights groups are preparing an amicus brief to defend the “No Representation Without Population Act” challenged in Fletcher v. Lamone. Maryland’s first-in-the-nation law requiring the state to count prisoners at their home addresses is protective of minority voting rights.
The assault on the right to vote witnessed in 2011 is historic in terms of its geographic scope and intensity. Legislation enacted in states across the country to require government-issued photo identification and/or prove citizenship to register to vote, make voter registration more difficult, and curtail early voting is nothing short of blatant vote suppression, the likes of which has not been seen in generations.
WASHINGTON— The assault on the right to vote witnessed in 2011 is historic in terms of its geographic scope and ferocity, according to new testimony submitted by national policy center Demos to today’s House Judiciary Committee forum entitled “Excluded from Democracy: The Impact of Recent State Voting Law Changes.”
NEW YORK-- On Tuesday, voters in Maine decisively voiced their support for fair and open elections. By a 3 to 2 margin, voters restored the option of Same Day Registration, rejecting the Republican-sponsored effort to make voting more difficult. Miles Rapoport, President of Demos, former Secretary of the State of Connecticut and long-time Same Day Registration advocate, issued the following statement:
The citizens of Maine will be voting tomorrow whether to keep the same-day registration system that they’ve had for nearly four decades. Since 1973, Maine voters have been able to walk into a polling place or a municipal clerk’s office on Election Day and register to vote.
AUGUSTA-- This week, national voting rights organizations, the ACLU and Demos, as well as the local ACLU of Maine call upon the Secretary of State to cease and desist actions that threaten and intimidate legitimate voters, particularly students singled out by the Maine Republican Party earlier this year. The ACLU and Demos expressed concern that Secretary of State Charlie Summers has violated the United States Constitution and federal laws, including the federal Voting Rights Act.
NEW YORK— The national public policy center Demos welcomes the expanded availability of language assistance for limited-English-proficient voters in future elections, as announced yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase was occasioned by the Census Bureau’s recalculation of Latino, Asian American, Native American and Alaskan Native citizens needing such assistance, as provided for under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.