UpFront

Supreme Court deals blow to voting rights; Plus: How the “Citizen” app encourages racist vigilantism

On this show:

0:08 – The Trump Organization has been indicted for tax fraud. Russ Choma joins us – Choma is a reporter in the Washington bureau of Mother Jones covering money in politics and influence.

0:34 – The Supreme Court just ruled against Democratic Party leaders in Brnovich vs. DNC, where the Democratic National Committee had sued to strike down two Arizona laws that limited voting rights. The laws allowed to stand make it harder for third parties to collect ballots and also maintain a rule disallowing votes cast in the wrong precinct from being counted. Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, joins us to break down the decision.

1:08 – What’s up with the Citizen App? Its founder has been accused of furthering mob violence and encouraging racist vigilantism, and on multiple occasions, trying to launch manhunts for people who have not committed crimes. In Oakland, a Citizen App report was recently used to drum up fear against Black residents using public space near Lake Merritt. We speak with Davey D Cook, Hip Hop Historian, adjunct professor at San Francisco State University, and host of KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio, and Joseph Cox, is a journalist covering hackers, crime, and privacy for Vice Motherboard. One of Joseph’s many stories on Citizen is called: ‘FIND THIS FUCK:’ Inside Citizen’s Dangerous Effort to Cash In On Vigilantism.

1:34 – We talk with Mia Bonta and Janani Ramachandran, the two candidates who will head to a runoff in the California Assembly District 18 race to replace Rob Bonta.

photo: Martin Sanchez via Unsplash