Democracy Decoded

Have you cast your ballot yet? Campaign Legal Center is here with a quick reminder to get out and vote! On this Election Day, host Simone Leeper reflects on democratic values, the resilience of America’s decentralized election system, and the importance of civic participation, even in atypical times. She also previews what's coming after the midterms — a comprehensive post-election analysis by Campaign Legal Center President Trevor Potter and Executive Director Adav Noti.

About CLC:
Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. We fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. To make a tax-deductible donation to Campaign Legal Center, visit campaignlegal.org/donate
Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For 60 years, the Voting Rights Act stood as the most powerful tool for protecting voters of color from discrimination at the ballot box. But in a single decision earlier this year, the Supreme Court gutted it and opened the door for states to enact discriminatory voting maps and laws.
On this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper is joined by Gilda Daniels, University of Baltimore law professor, former DOJ attorney, and Of Counsel at Campaign Legal Center;, George Washington University law professor Spencer Overton; and Campaign Legal Center senior vice president Bruce Spiva to examine how the court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais weakened Section 2 of the VRA, and how President Trump's redistricting push is undoing districts that gave communities of color a voice. They also discuss what solutions — from state-level voting rights acts to proportional representation — could help preserve our country’s true, multi-racial democracy.

Episode Highlights:
5:00 – What is the history of America’s multiracial democracy?
7:35 – What made the Voting Rights Act the most successful civil rights law in history?
9:26 – How did Section 2 become the VRA's most vital and embattled protection?
11:27 – What did the Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais actually do?
12:50 – How has partisan gerrymandering been positioned as a loophole for racial discrimination?
16:17 – How did Trump's redistricting push trigger an arms race across states?
18:46 – What happens when voters ban gerrymandering and lawmakers do it anyway?
20:21 – Could proportional representation be the structural reform our democracy needs?
22:03 – Can Americans still reform their democracy when institutions fail to protect it?
25:40 – Does the power to change democracy still belong to the people?
27:06 – What's at stake in the fight for the freedom to vote?

Host and Guests:
Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Gilda Daniels is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She teaches Election Law, Appellate Advocacy, Federal Courts, Civil Procedure, and Critical Legal Theory, which includes jurisprudence, critical race theory, socioeconomics, and access to justice. Daniels, an expert on voting rights, has served as a deputy chief in the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. She has more than twenty years of voting rights experience, bringing cases that involved various provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and other voting rights statutes. Before beginning her voting rights career, Daniels was a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights, representing death row inmates and bringing prison condition cases. She also serves as Of Counsel at Campaign Legal Center.

Spencer Overton is the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law and the founder and faculty director of the Multiracial Democracy Project at GW Law School. The Project is currently working on the implications for multiracial democracy of: 1) proportional representation (particularly in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act); 2) artificial intelligence; and 3) court reforms.
Spencer served in senior democracy policy positions on the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and transition team, and he served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Policy in the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served for nine years as president of and rebuilt the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies—America’s Black think tank—where he established programs in technology, the future of work, economics, and diversity among congressional staff and presidential appointees. His work on national election reform commissions resulted in Iowa restoring voting rights to over 80,000 returning citizens and Democrats moving diverse states like South Carolina and Nevada to the beginning of their presidential primary process. He practiced law at Debevoise & Plimpton, clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon Keith, and graduated with honors from both Hampton University and Harvard Law School.

Bruce Spiva is an attorney and community leader who has spent his over 30-year career fighting for civil rights and civil liberties, voting rights, consumer protection, and antitrust enforcement. Over the past three decades, he has tried cases and argued appeals in courtrooms across the country, including arguing against vote suppression in the United States Supreme Court in 2021. In 2022, in his first run for public office, Bruce mounted a competitive run in the primary election for Washington, D.C. Attorney General.
Prior to joining Campaign Legal Center as Senior Vice President, Bruce founded his own law firm, where he practiced for eleven years. He has held several leadership and management positions as a partner at two national law firms. He first-chaired twelve voting rights and redistricting trials across the country, and argued numerous voting rights appeals in U.S. circuit courts and state supreme courts.
For decades, Bruce has fought for statehood and local autonomy for the people of Washington, D.C. He has served as the chair and is a current board member of DC Vote, an organization dedicated to securing statehood for the people of the District of Columbia. Bruce was honored as a DC Vote Champion of Democracy in 2012. In 2007, he testified before the U.S. Congress in favor of the proposed D.C. Voting Rights Act.

Links:
The U.S. Supreme Court Has Eviscerated the Voting Rights Act — What’s Next?
What’s next after a devastating voting rights ruling by SCOTUS?
What the Latest SCOTUS Rulings Mean for Our Democracy and the Rule of Law
What Is Gerrymandering? | Campaign Legal Center
How Can We Combat Gerrymandering? | Campaign Legal Center
How CLC Is Pushing Back on the Trump Administration’s Anti-Voter Actions

About CLC:
Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. We fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. To make a tax-deductible donation to Campaign Legal Center, visit campaignlegal.org/donate
Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When the Trump administration barred non-governmental groups from administrative naturalization ceremonies in August of 2025, the League of Women Voters was forced to cancel voter education efforts at 166 planned events — cutting off a pathway to voter registration that new citizens had relied on for decades. It was one front in a broader campaign to reshape the American electorate.
On this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper examines how the administration is using citizenship itself as a tool to suppress voting. Marcia Johnson of the League of Women Voters describes the human cost of shutting down registration at naturalization ceremonies and the chilling effect on new citizens. Campaign Legal Center's Anna Baldwin details the legal fight to restore access, challenge the SAVE Act's documentary proof requirements, and stop faulty voter purges in states like Ohio and Texas. And Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar recounts his state's refusal to hand over sensitive voter information. Together, they raise a question that cuts to the heart of our democracy: What happens when a president tries to choose his voters instead of the other way around — and how far can he go before the system pushes back?

Episode Highlights:
1:07 — What happened when USCIS shut down voter registration at administrative naturalization ceremonies?
3:23 — What does the rule of law mean for every American citizen?
4:48 — How does barring civic groups from administrative naturalization ceremonies harm new citizens' right to vote?
6:17 — Can the president unilaterally end birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment?
8:36 — Would the SAVE Act protect elections or disenfranchise eligible voters?
10:40 — How do state voter purges falsely target naturalized citizens?
13:20 — What does it mean when a president tries to choose his voters?
14:18 — Can the federal government force states to hand over sensitive voter data?
16:42 — Could armed federal agents show up at your polling place this fall?
19:10 — What guardrails are needed for federal election observers at the polls?
23:11 — Does America need structural reform to rebuild the separation of powers?
24:37 — Can the courts stop the government from barring civic groups from administrative naturalization ceremonies?
27:19 — Does American citizenship have membership tiers or is every citizen equal?

Host and Guests:
Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Marcia Johnson is the chief counsel and chief of Activation & Justice for the League of Women Voters. She leads the organization’s advocacy and litigation and mobilization and engagement teams, overseeing the strategic direction of their policy, litigation, programmatic and organizing efforts. Before joining LWVUS in October 2024, she was the co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for 20 years, where she managed the organization’s voting rights advocacy and voter engagement portfolios including building the nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection program. Marcia also oversaw research into the impact of the Voting Rights Act on American democracy including organizing two nationwide commissions to document this impact. Marcia also coordinated the Lawyers’ Committee’s international human rights initiatives, including monitoring US compliance with its treaty obligations. Marcia is a nationally recognized leader on voting rights, has testified before Congress, and never turns down an opportunity to advocate for voting rights across all forms of media, national and international. Marcia received her juris doctor from Villanova University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Linguistics from Georgetown University.

Anna Baldwin is a member of CLC's voting rights team working to protect the freedom to vote, litigating cases in state and federal courts, from filing through appeal to the Supreme Court. Prior to joining CLC, Anna spent 14 years in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice prior to joining CLC. In North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. McCrory, Anna led briefing and appellate argument for the United States to overturn a North Carolina law that purposefully restricted voting and registration opportunities for Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Anna was also a member of the trial team that successfully challenged Texas’s racially discriminatory voter ID law. Anna has argued 18 cases before the federal courts of appeal, including four en banc cases. Previously, Anna was an associate in the Washington D.C. office of Jenner & Block LLP, and they clerked for Judge James Robertson on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and for Judge M. Blane Michael on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Secretary of State Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar was elected as Nevada Secretary of State in 2022 and assumed office on January 2, 2023. Prior to being elected, Secretary Aguilar served twelve years as General Counsel for Agassi Graf, the management company for Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, and the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. In this role, he was responsible for communications and media, marketing and brand management, strategic partnerships, legal and government affairs. The Secretary also served as Special Counsel to the Chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, Jim Rogers, and as a lawyer for the parent company of the Las Vegas and Reno NBC affiliates, KSNV Channel 3 and KRNV Channel 4, and 15 other NBC affiliates.
Secretary Aguilar graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and accounting, an MBA and Juris Doctor. At the University of Arizona, he was also elected to represent the more than 35,000 students as Student Body President. Secretary Aguilar is a member of the Nevada, California, and Arizona Bars.

Links:
Defending Civic Engagement Groups Against Restrictions on Voter Registration at Naturalization Ceremonies
Challenging the Trump Administration’s Unlawful Voter Data Collection
The Fight to Protect the National Voter Registration Act at the U.S. Supreme Court
How the SAVE Act Threatens the Freedom to Vote
What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act
Protecting the Promise of American Citizenship
Why Birthright Citizenship Is an Essential Part of Our Democracy
Every American Has the Same Freedom to Vote, No Matter Where You're Born
Taking Action Against Presidential Abuses of Power

About CLC:
Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. We fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. To make a tax-deductible donation to Campaign Legal Center, visit campaignlegal.org/donate
Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper sits down with Campaign Legal Center’s Jonathan Diaz and Chad Dunn, head of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, to discuss the Department of Justice's escalating seizures of 2020 election materials in Georgia, Arizona, and beyond. They also unpack the executive orders President Trump has issued to reshape voter eligibility and mail-in voting, which have been repeatedly blocked by federal courts. Dunn goes on to detail his fight against the Riverside County sheriff's illegal ballot seizure and explains how election misinformation erodes public trust even when systems remain secure. As we get closer to the 2026 midterms, this episode explores what it will take to keep American elections safe, secure, and accurate — and who's responsible for making sure they stay that way.

Episode Highlights:
2:59 – Is the Trump administration laying groundwork to undermine the 2026 midterms?
3:46 – Why does the president still refuse to accept his 2020 loss in Georgia?
5:14 – How far has the DOJ's ballot subpoena campaign spread beyond Georgia?
6:55 – What happens when a sheriff decides he can seize ballots from a special election?
9:30 – Why are ballot seizures like this often self-defeating?
12:00 – How does election misinformation spread even when systems remain secure?
13:55 – Why does election misinformation make people lose faith in democracy itself?
15:58 – Can the president legally nationalize elections or cancel the midterms?
17:48 – Why have federal courts repeatedly blocked Trump's election executive orders?
21:42 – Can the president legally nationalize elections?
24:14 – What happens when election deniers are put in charge of federal agencies?
26:45 – What can be done to protect the freedom to vote going forward?

Host and Guests:
Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Jonathan Diaz manages CLC's work to protect election results and defend against election sabotage and works directly with CLC's litigation, communications, and policy teams to help set organizational strategy on voting rights and elections advocacy. He also works directly with election officials at the state and local level to improve election administration processes, and represents CLC in democracy reform coalitions to coordinate legal, advocacy, and messaging strategies with partner organizations across the country.
Jonathan has also litigated voting rights cases in federal courts across the country, including LULAC v. Executive Office of the President (challenging the President's unconstitutional executive order on voting), LUCHA v. Fontes (challenging Arizona's burdensome and discriminatory proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration), VoteAmerica v. Raffensperger (challenging Georgia's restrictions on the distribution of absentee ballot applications) and Raysor v. Lee (challenging Florida's conditioning of rights restoration for voters with past felony convictions on the payment of legal financial obligations).

Chad Dunn is a Lecturer in Law at UCLA School of Law for the Voting Rights and Law Practicum that proudly equips emerging lawyers to confidently serve as powerful courtroom civil rights advocates in any court in the country. His research lies in civil rights, with a specialization in voting rights. He also serves as the Legal Director of UCLA’s Voting Rights Project, a joint project of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the UCLA School of Law, and the UCLA School of Social Science, where he directs all litigation, appeals, and legal scholarship for the Voting Rights Project. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Dunn co-founded and is a partner of the law firm Brazil & Dunn, LLP, where he continues to try cases and handle appeals in numerous areas of civil rights including redistricting, race discrimination under Title VII, sex discrimination under Title IX, prison conditions, police conduct, and government ethics as well as other civil and criminal legal matters.

Links:
Are President Trump and His Allies Laying the Groundwork To Undermine Our Elections?
What Role Does the Federal Government Play in Our Elections?
There is No Role for the President in Our Elections
Defending Against the Unlawful Seizure of Ballots (Cervantes v. Bianco)
CLC Sues to Block Trump Administration’s Illegal Election Overreach
Campaign Legal Center Sues Trump Administration Over Another Unconstitutional Voting Executive Order
Defending the Freedom to Vote from the Trump Administration’s Unconstitutional Presidential Overreach (LULAC, et al. v. Executive Office of the President)
Victory! Anti-Voter Executive Order Halted in Court
Vote By Mail Remains Secure: SCOTUS Rejects Trump Administration’s Attempt to Enforce New USPS Policy
A Stress Test for the Rule of Law: What the Election Subversion Pardons Really Mean
Trump Could Interfere With the Midterm Elections. You Can Help Defend Them

About CLC:
Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. We fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. To make a tax-deductible donation to Campaign Legal Center, visit campaignlegal.org/donate
Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A crypto billionaire convicted of laundering money walks free after his company enriches the president's family by billions. A congressman expelled for defrauding voters gets his slate wiped clean for staying loyal. A tax fraudster owing investors $700 million never repays a dime before receiving clemency. These aren't isolated instances— they're a pattern.
On this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper is joined by Liz Oyer, former head of the DOJ's Office of the Pardon Attorney, and Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at Campaign Legal Center, to break down how President Trump has reshaped executive clemency into a marketplace. Oyer draws on her firsthand experience reviewing pardon applications to explain how the traditional, merit-based process has been sidelined, while Fischer lays out three distinct categories of abuse — reward pardons, corrupt pardons, and brokered pardons — each backed by real cases of donors, loyalists, and lobbyists cashing in. Together, they explore what recourse remains, from proposed legislation like the No Payoffs for Pardons Act to the limits of congressional oversight, including a sobering look at what's lost when clemency serves power instead of justice.

Episode Highlights:
2:46 – How have executive clemency powers been used by President Trump?
3:11 – Can clemency give deserving people a real second chance?
5:16 – How is a presidential pardon supposed to work?
6:32 – Are there any legal limits on who a president can pardon?
7:35 – How has President Trump turned pardon power into a reward system?
9:17 – What is a reward pardon?
12:59 – Did a $1 million donation really buy a nursing home executive's clemency?
15:28 – Why did an expelled, unrepentant congressman get pardoned anyway?
18:47 – How do wealthy individuals use brokers for pardons?
23:14 – Could legislation actually stop this corruption?
27:25 – Is America left with a two-tiered system of justice?
28:01 – What effect does President Trump’s abuse of the pardon power have on applicants without money or connections?

Host and Guests:
Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Liz Oyer is an experienced attorney and justice advocate. She most recently served in the Department of Justice as United States Pardon Attorney (April 2022 to March 2025), overseeing the Office of the Pardon Attorney. In that role, Liz was responsible for reviewing applications from individuals across the country seeking pardons and commutations of sentence and preparing recommendations for the President concerning the exercise of his constitutional clemency power.
Liz’s tenure as Pardon Attorney was focused on making second chances through clemency available to all deserving Americans without consideration of status, resources, or politics. Liz and her team completely overhauled the clemency application process to make it more accessible, transparent, and user-friendly, including streamlining and improving the application forms for the first time in decades. Liz conducted extensive community outreach and education, including visits to federal prisons around the country. During her three years as Pardon Attorney, Liz and her team made recommendations to the President in over 15,000 clemency cases, prioritizing those involving overly harsh sentences imposed under outdated laws and policies.

Brendan Fischer is Director of Strategic Investigations, working to support legal actions, policy reform and public accountability by exposing how money influences politics and providing stakeholders with the information needed to protect the freedom to vote.
Brendan brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of law, investigative journalism and democracy reform. Prior to his current role, he served as Deputy Executive Director at the investigative watchdog group Documented, and before that, he built and ran Campaign Legal Center's Federal Reform program, where he directed legal strategies to address dark money, illegal coordination and foreign interference. He earned his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and he began his public service career as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador. Brendan rejoined CLC in October 2025.

Links:
Inside the Pardon Playbook: An Analysis of President Trump’s Clemency Abuses
Abuse of the Presidential Pardon Power
CLC Endorses Congressional Legislation to End the Pay-To-Play Pardon System
Seeking Pardon, Foreign Billionaire Allegedly Funneled Millions to Trump Super PAC
A Stress Test for the Rule of Law: What the Election Subversion Pardons Really Mean
Opinion: The States Should Override Trump’s Indefensible Pardons

About CLC:
Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. We fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. To make a tax-deductible donation to Campaign Legal Center, visit campaignlegal.org/donate
Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.