Hi, all, and happy Thursday! And it is happy indeed—the Respect For Marriage Act passed in the House this morning and will soon become law! Also, Brittney Grimer is coming home! And the Manchin dirty deal has been blocked AGAIN! (For now.) You guys had a lot to do with two of those things, and really all three—having Joe Biden in the White House gave Grimer a much better chance of attaining freedom. You helped elect him, so you own that victory, too!
Dear, Jessica. Please accept my Thanks, and support for your continued daily posts. The recommendations you share for ways to participate in the legislative process are very helpful to me. As you say, if and when I have a differing idea, I have the agency to create my own actions.
I value each and every offering you post.
Signed: the wife of a deceased Vietnam Vet who also provided psychotherapy to vets and family members of veterans w PTSD and TBI’s from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf & Iraqi conflicts.
Jessica, You are amazing! The time, effort, considered thought, and extremely useful information you include in to each newsletter is so helpful! I so appreciate you and the work you’re doing. Thank you!
Appreciate your newsletter as always and would love to underscore one point: many people forget (saw this ALOT on textbanking Zooms the past few weeks) that most of us doing this work are volunteers and in many cases, a one-person show. I have been appalled by the tone that people take with someone leading a GOTV event or with people like you who are digesting info for us all to use. It takes an enormous amount of time and emotional energy to be positive and proactive. (And I won’t even go into having to respond to all the people who need constant emotional hand-holding.) Our Dem/progressive tent is a big one - we’re not gonna agree all the time. If you don’t agree with something and feel something must be said, say it kindly and politely. We’re all on the same team! Thank you as always Jessica! Ps: I am always so impressed that you put out a 5 days a week newsletter. I do one every month or so and it takes me days to write it even though it’s short. It’s a lot of work! 💙
Jessica, I think you are absolutely terrific and inspiring. I never skip your emails and always learn from them. It always surprises me when someone like you - so precise, co clear, such a pro - gets grief for expressing an opinion with balance and respect. You do a lot for us and deserve better!
Also, I called the Vanguard line and got a service rep in training. He was glad to take down our concerns because they have "homework" for their reps and one part is to submit accounts of customer calls on issues like this one (withdrawal from the Net Zero Asset Management initiative) so they can be passsed up the line. He seemed to support our position (but of course, not officially). Pretty fun. I do lots of calls like this and for one felt that it made a difference. You do so much good! Thank you!
Dear Jessica! You're a role model for us individuals without staff who are progressives (or not) and working a little tiny bit to make this country a better place for everyone. Thank you for being open to criticism. Thank you for continuing to help all of us help our country. It's an invaluable service. Your energy means a lot. It's inspiring. xoxo Deborah
Dear, dear Jessica. You may not be perfect, but in this old lady's opinion, you are pretty damn close. Then again, perfect is the enemy of sane and not a worthy aspiration. It is all about intent, and you don't have a hurtful, thoughtless intention in your repertoire. Even Bob Hubbell finds you an inspiration. Please don't take a rare slip like using the wrong phrase so to heart. You are everybody else's cheerleader and deserve a break, a pass, a little understanding from readers who choose to criticize – no matter how valid their concern. No "Mea Culpa" necessary. OK?
I am not offended by the use of the term "War Machined". There is a world of difference between honourably serving one's country and profiteering off of human suffering.
As a veteran Jessica is 100% correct to call it the war machine - because that's what it is. I am part of a progressive veterans group called Common Defense, and I don't think any of us would have a problem calling it that. We often refer to it as the "Military Industrial Complex" because corporations are literally profiting off of sending us to war.
I credit YOU Jessica for much of our focused political action in 2022. Robert Hubbell introduced us to you. We find him calming and informative whereas you give us the tools to continually take action. We were already Resistbot folks but we found Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier through you, the Native American postcarding initiative and dozens of other groups including Focus for Democracy, Force Multiplier, Movement Voter Project .... the list goes on and on. YOU a are the reason our dollars were better spent (we gave to many campaigns but the aggregate groups get a bigger bang for our buck) and we took so many other actions: mailing Vote Forward letters (1,000), postcards (500) and text banking and phone banking. So please be assured that you are herding we cats into doing really good work which is why we love you and can feel so proud of what we accomplished together.
This is a teach-in and strategy to pass The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act (H.R. 5746 ) during the lame duck session and before SCOTUS rules on Moore v Harper and Merrill v Mulligan including more information about what the Supreme Court may do and has done to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Only passing H.R. 5746 can protect our right to vote in the next 2 years, if ever.
Call Senators listed at the end of this email and ask them to stand up against the US Supreme Court and certain State Legislatures which do not believe in every American citizen is entitled to vote: Our zip code must not determine if, when or how we vote!
Congress has a duty to protect our democracy.
In January the Senate’s filibuster prevented H.R. 5746, The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act from reaching the floor of the Senate, thus preventing the Senate from exercising its authority under Article 1.4 to debate and then vote on a uniform federal election law. Under a rule of the Senate and not under the Constitution, a super majority of 60 votes is needed for the Senate to pass legislation authorized under Articles 1.4, the 14th and 15th and such a super majority is not in the Constitution. Consider this: California has 39m voters and 2 Senators; yet the 5 least populous states have a total of 3.5m voters and 10 Senators plus the filibuster.
When it comes to passing voting rights, isn’t it ironic that voting rights advocates are asking the Senate to pass a federal standard for voting to ensure 1 person 1 vote and every vote counted, yet the Senate itself does not have 1 Senator 1 vote.
Next: consider the role of the Supreme Court in ruling against Congress’ exercise of its powers under Article 1.4:
The Supreme Court has stated that unless Congress enacts specific election laws, voting rights shall be determined by individual state legislatures.
Congress does have the power to set uniform national standards for times, places and manner of voting under the Constitution of the United States of America: Article 1.4 grants to each State Legislature the power to set the times, places and manner of holding elections for US Senators and Representatives, “but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.....”
Congress has acted wisely and carefully when enacting and then amending 8 times, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) with the purpose: “No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure, shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color” which purposes were subsequently expanded to include national origin, disabilities, etc.
The VRA’s greatest early impact was in its pre-clearance requirement for Federal Court or Justice Department approval before jurisdictions that had historically discriminated could change voting rules, processes, or procedures. One result: By 1969, Mississippi’s Black voter registration rate increased to 59% from 6%.
Nonetheless the US Supreme Court has been gutting and continues to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965:
● Citizens United v FEC (2010) removed Federal campaign restrictions on Corporations and Unions, unleashing unlimited and undisclosed (foreign) money into politics
● Shelby County v Holder (2013) held that the pre-clearance formula is unconstitutional. Impact: 1688 polling places closed in previously covered States; 30 million voters purged from voting rolls, restrictive voting laws such as strict voter ID laws enacted in at least 19 states:
● Rucho v Common Cause (2019) ruled that state laws permitting partisan (not racial) gerrymandering are “beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
● Brnovich v DNC (2021) upheld an Arizona law to stop people from collecting ballots to deliver to precincts, which disproportionately impacted indigenous peoples; and to stop counting ballots from people who voted in the wrong precinct.
● Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) v. Husted (2016): by not granting certiorari uphold Ohio’s perfection rule allowing insignificant errors on the outside envelope of a provisional ballot to disqualify the vote of a properly registered voter - one was a blind 84 year old voter prohibited from voting, clearly a denial of the right to vote in contravention of the rights of disabled voters to be able to vote.
Thus State Legislatures gained significant power after the Supreme Court overruled federal laws rightfully passed under Articles 1.4.
H.R.5746 – a federal uniform set of laws to ensure:
● uniform laws setting times, places and manner of voting:
● paper ballots for all voters to ensure post-election audits and accuracy;
● preventing the horrific 3 hours in line to vote in Georgia just on Friday by reducing to a maximum of 30 minutes the waiting time in line to vote, early voting, no excuse vote by mail,
● franking of the vote by mail envelope,
● adequate funding for the mandates of H.R. 5746,
● a national holiday for election day,
● nonpartisan independent redistricting commissions in every state,
● no foreign money in our elections through clean money provisions,
● the Native American Voting Rights Act and reinstating the preclearance provisions of the John R Lewis Act with defined standards thus ending the impacts of Shelby, Rucho, NEOCH and Brnovich.
In this October 2022 Term the US Supreme Court has taken up 2 significant voting rights cases which likely will further result in its evisceration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("VRA") and grant even more power to state legislatures.
Moore v Harper : By June 2023 SCOTUS is likely to grant North Carolina’s state legislature (and other states) power under Article 1.4 to determine times place and manners of elections even if held unconstitutional under the terms of North Carolina’s State Constitution, making state legislatures superior to the oversight of their State Supreme Courts.
Merrill v Mulligan : The Court is likely to support Alabama’s position that racial consideration in redistricting is impermissible, notwithstanding that eliminating the impact of racial segregation is an underlying purpose of the VRA. Keep in mind that the Roberts’ Court had no problem finding political gerrymandering by state legislatures to be constitutional in Rucho because it is not up to the Supreme Court to question the political decisions of an equal branch of government.
H.R. 5746 will not be re-enacted by the new House of Representatives on January 2023.
MESSAGE TO THE FOLLOWING SENATORS: To protect the right to vote it is imperative to end the filibuster of H.R. 5746 this week: debate and vote on the Freedom to Vote: John R Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Call each of these : SINEMA, MANCHIN, ROMNEY, MURKOWSKI, PORTMAN, COLLINS and ask your colleagues, friends and supporters to do the same.
Phone numbers are available on each state's page or on your senator's website: this following link works as well as the phone number below.
Senators Suite & Telephone List (PDF)
A U.S. Capitol Switchboard operator can also connect you directly with the Senator's office. : 202) 224-3121 ask to speak to the Senator's Chief of Staff or Voting Rights expert.
Dear, Jessica. Please accept my Thanks, and support for your continued daily posts. The recommendations you share for ways to participate in the legislative process are very helpful to me. As you say, if and when I have a differing idea, I have the agency to create my own actions.
I value each and every offering you post.
Signed: the wife of a deceased Vietnam Vet who also provided psychotherapy to vets and family members of veterans w PTSD and TBI’s from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf & Iraqi conflicts.
Jessica, You are amazing! The time, effort, considered thought, and extremely useful information you include in to each newsletter is so helpful! I so appreciate you and the work you’re doing. Thank you!
Appreciate your newsletter as always and would love to underscore one point: many people forget (saw this ALOT on textbanking Zooms the past few weeks) that most of us doing this work are volunteers and in many cases, a one-person show. I have been appalled by the tone that people take with someone leading a GOTV event or with people like you who are digesting info for us all to use. It takes an enormous amount of time and emotional energy to be positive and proactive. (And I won’t even go into having to respond to all the people who need constant emotional hand-holding.) Our Dem/progressive tent is a big one - we’re not gonna agree all the time. If you don’t agree with something and feel something must be said, say it kindly and politely. We’re all on the same team! Thank you as always Jessica! Ps: I am always so impressed that you put out a 5 days a week newsletter. I do one every month or so and it takes me days to write it even though it’s short. It’s a lot of work! 💙
Jessica, I think you are absolutely terrific and inspiring. I never skip your emails and always learn from them. It always surprises me when someone like you - so precise, co clear, such a pro - gets grief for expressing an opinion with balance and respect. You do a lot for us and deserve better!
Also, I called the Vanguard line and got a service rep in training. He was glad to take down our concerns because they have "homework" for their reps and one part is to submit accounts of customer calls on issues like this one (withdrawal from the Net Zero Asset Management initiative) so they can be passsed up the line. He seemed to support our position (but of course, not officially). Pretty fun. I do lots of calls like this and for one felt that it made a difference. You do so much good! Thank you!
Dear Jessica! You're a role model for us individuals without staff who are progressives (or not) and working a little tiny bit to make this country a better place for everyone. Thank you for being open to criticism. Thank you for continuing to help all of us help our country. It's an invaluable service. Your energy means a lot. It's inspiring. xoxo Deborah
Dear, dear Jessica. You may not be perfect, but in this old lady's opinion, you are pretty damn close. Then again, perfect is the enemy of sane and not a worthy aspiration. It is all about intent, and you don't have a hurtful, thoughtless intention in your repertoire. Even Bob Hubbell finds you an inspiration. Please don't take a rare slip like using the wrong phrase so to heart. You are everybody else's cheerleader and deserve a break, a pass, a little understanding from readers who choose to criticize – no matter how valid their concern. No "Mea Culpa" necessary. OK?
I am not offended by the use of the term "War Machined". There is a world of difference between honourably serving one's country and profiteering off of human suffering.
FYI, it's Brittney GRINER.
As a veteran Jessica is 100% correct to call it the war machine - because that's what it is. I am part of a progressive veterans group called Common Defense, and I don't think any of us would have a problem calling it that. We often refer to it as the "Military Industrial Complex" because corporations are literally profiting off of sending us to war.
I credit YOU Jessica for much of our focused political action in 2022. Robert Hubbell introduced us to you. We find him calming and informative whereas you give us the tools to continually take action. We were already Resistbot folks but we found Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier through you, the Native American postcarding initiative and dozens of other groups including Focus for Democracy, Force Multiplier, Movement Voter Project .... the list goes on and on. YOU a are the reason our dollars were better spent (we gave to many campaigns but the aggregate groups get a bigger bang for our buck) and we took so many other actions: mailing Vote Forward letters (1,000), postcards (500) and text banking and phone banking. So please be assured that you are herding we cats into doing really good work which is why we love you and can feel so proud of what we accomplished together.
This is a teach-in and strategy to pass The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act (H.R. 5746 ) during the lame duck session and before SCOTUS rules on Moore v Harper and Merrill v Mulligan including more information about what the Supreme Court may do and has done to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Only passing H.R. 5746 can protect our right to vote in the next 2 years, if ever.
Call Senators listed at the end of this email and ask them to stand up against the US Supreme Court and certain State Legislatures which do not believe in every American citizen is entitled to vote: Our zip code must not determine if, when or how we vote!
Congress has a duty to protect our democracy.
In January the Senate’s filibuster prevented H.R. 5746, The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act from reaching the floor of the Senate, thus preventing the Senate from exercising its authority under Article 1.4 to debate and then vote on a uniform federal election law. Under a rule of the Senate and not under the Constitution, a super majority of 60 votes is needed for the Senate to pass legislation authorized under Articles 1.4, the 14th and 15th and such a super majority is not in the Constitution. Consider this: California has 39m voters and 2 Senators; yet the 5 least populous states have a total of 3.5m voters and 10 Senators plus the filibuster.
When it comes to passing voting rights, isn’t it ironic that voting rights advocates are asking the Senate to pass a federal standard for voting to ensure 1 person 1 vote and every vote counted, yet the Senate itself does not have 1 Senator 1 vote.
Next: consider the role of the Supreme Court in ruling against Congress’ exercise of its powers under Article 1.4:
The Supreme Court has stated that unless Congress enacts specific election laws, voting rights shall be determined by individual state legislatures.
Congress does have the power to set uniform national standards for times, places and manner of voting under the Constitution of the United States of America: Article 1.4 grants to each State Legislature the power to set the times, places and manner of holding elections for US Senators and Representatives, “but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.....”
Congress has acted wisely and carefully when enacting and then amending 8 times, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) with the purpose: “No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure, shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color” which purposes were subsequently expanded to include national origin, disabilities, etc.
The VRA’s greatest early impact was in its pre-clearance requirement for Federal Court or Justice Department approval before jurisdictions that had historically discriminated could change voting rules, processes, or procedures. One result: By 1969, Mississippi’s Black voter registration rate increased to 59% from 6%.
Nonetheless the US Supreme Court has been gutting and continues to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965:
● Citizens United v FEC (2010) removed Federal campaign restrictions on Corporations and Unions, unleashing unlimited and undisclosed (foreign) money into politics
● Shelby County v Holder (2013) held that the pre-clearance formula is unconstitutional. Impact: 1688 polling places closed in previously covered States; 30 million voters purged from voting rolls, restrictive voting laws such as strict voter ID laws enacted in at least 19 states:
● Rucho v Common Cause (2019) ruled that state laws permitting partisan (not racial) gerrymandering are “beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
● Brnovich v DNC (2021) upheld an Arizona law to stop people from collecting ballots to deliver to precincts, which disproportionately impacted indigenous peoples; and to stop counting ballots from people who voted in the wrong precinct.
● Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) v. Husted (2016): by not granting certiorari uphold Ohio’s perfection rule allowing insignificant errors on the outside envelope of a provisional ballot to disqualify the vote of a properly registered voter - one was a blind 84 year old voter prohibited from voting, clearly a denial of the right to vote in contravention of the rights of disabled voters to be able to vote.
Thus State Legislatures gained significant power after the Supreme Court overruled federal laws rightfully passed under Articles 1.4.
H.R.5746 – a federal uniform set of laws to ensure:
● uniform laws setting times, places and manner of voting:
● paper ballots for all voters to ensure post-election audits and accuracy;
● preventing the horrific 3 hours in line to vote in Georgia just on Friday by reducing to a maximum of 30 minutes the waiting time in line to vote, early voting, no excuse vote by mail,
● franking of the vote by mail envelope,
● adequate funding for the mandates of H.R. 5746,
● a national holiday for election day,
● nonpartisan independent redistricting commissions in every state,
● no foreign money in our elections through clean money provisions,
● the Native American Voting Rights Act and reinstating the preclearance provisions of the John R Lewis Act with defined standards thus ending the impacts of Shelby, Rucho, NEOCH and Brnovich.
In this October 2022 Term the US Supreme Court has taken up 2 significant voting rights cases which likely will further result in its evisceration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("VRA") and grant even more power to state legislatures.
Moore v Harper : By June 2023 SCOTUS is likely to grant North Carolina’s state legislature (and other states) power under Article 1.4 to determine times place and manners of elections even if held unconstitutional under the terms of North Carolina’s State Constitution, making state legislatures superior to the oversight of their State Supreme Courts.
Merrill v Mulligan : The Court is likely to support Alabama’s position that racial consideration in redistricting is impermissible, notwithstanding that eliminating the impact of racial segregation is an underlying purpose of the VRA. Keep in mind that the Roberts’ Court had no problem finding political gerrymandering by state legislatures to be constitutional in Rucho because it is not up to the Supreme Court to question the political decisions of an equal branch of government.
H.R. 5746 will not be re-enacted by the new House of Representatives on January 2023.
MESSAGE TO THE FOLLOWING SENATORS: To protect the right to vote it is imperative to end the filibuster of H.R. 5746 this week: debate and vote on the Freedom to Vote: John R Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Call each of these : SINEMA, MANCHIN, ROMNEY, MURKOWSKI, PORTMAN, COLLINS and ask your colleagues, friends and supporters to do the same.
Phone numbers are available on each state's page or on your senator's website: this following link works as well as the phone number below.
Senators Suite & Telephone List (PDF)
A U.S. Capitol Switchboard operator can also connect you directly with the Senator's office. : 202) 224-3121 ask to speak to the Senator's Chief of Staff or Voting Rights expert.