Prospect Writing Fellows Marcia Brown and Brittany Gibson completed their fellowships in 2021, but not before they did excellent work. We asked Marcia and Brittany to share their favorites of the year.
Marcia Brown
Nearly a year after the Biden administration took office, Prospect readers might be excited to see how Democrats turn to the executive branch to help realize a progressive agenda. But that didn’t quite happen.
“Still stuck – and threatened with extinction – at the border”
Options available to the President include ending horrific and cruel immigration policies, including “Stay In Mexico” and Title 42, a public health order first issued by the Trump administration to break the border for immigrants and Asylum seekers close. President Biden has continued both policies and, in fact, it is now Biden policies, not Trump’s. I wrote a story about how delayed the end of these programs felt in June, and it’s December, and we’re still doing it.
“The One Union Biden did not support”
In addition, the government has not yet recognized the immigration judges union, an organization that has historically enabled immigration judges to push for a more independent judiciary that is less subject to anti-immigrant political whims. We wrote about this in March.
“Physical mail could be abolished in federal prisons”
Likewise, the president could end a pilot program to dispose of physical mail in federal prisons. The justification for the program is to prevent drugs from entering prisons through mail containing illegal substances. But the reality is that this is not the way most drugs get into jails, but the program is another way for private companies to make profit and it removes another connection between the incarcerated and their families and supporters.
“How the Supreme Court Protects Robinhood”
I also want to highlight my coverage of the broker app Robinhood’s forced arbitration clause and the widespread use of such clauses in our economy.
“Did CNN broadcast a staged migrant crossing of the Rio Grande?”
And finally, here is my coverage of a CNN TV ad of migrants crossing the Rio Grande – footage that wasn’t all it seemed.
Brittany Gibson
What does an election reporter do in the first half of a year? There was no shortage of stories this year.
“A story of two Senate rallies”
2021 began with the completion of the 2020 cycle with two runoff elections to the Georgia Senate, with Democrats taking both seats in competitive races. I’ve traveled the state for TAP, and in this article I’ve cataloged the differences between Republican and Democratic rallies. The final days of all four campaigns were jam-packed with campaign events with candidates speaking on two very different voter priorities. The rallies marked a division that continues across the state – and across the country – as the election results continue to be questioned by a significant portion of Republican voters.
“Trump’s Last Stand”
A fascinating instrument of the Trump era was the Trump rally. In Dalton, Georgia, on the eve of the runoff elections, I spoke to rally attendees about their concerns about election fraud and how they still thought Trump could win the November general election through mid-January. It was a problem I didn’t think would last until 2021 – let alone 2022. But I suppose it just shows how wrong reporters can be at times. A typical example of this is that this article is titled “Trump’s Last Stand,” and it held one of its most memorable rallies the day after it was published, and has held many more rallies since then.
“Republicans Are Working To Roll Back Voter Turnout”
When the 2021 legislative period began, many GOP legislators took this opportunity to withdraw access to the voting slips, which were temporarily extended due to COVID. More than 100 bills have been introduced or implemented that would limit options or raise barriers to voting in person or by post. And several of the laws were passed, including laws on the Georgia and Texas battlefields. President Joe Biden’s response was to pass HR 1 and HR 4; Both bills uniformly expand access to voting rights across the country. However, it is still unclear when these ambitions will be implemented.
“What are the Democrats doing with their own selection process while the Republicans are suppressing the vote?”
While Republicans and Democrats alike scrutinized new electoral laws being introduced in state legislatures, as well as possible federal laws affecting voting rights, and drafting their autopsies for the 2020 cycle, the DNC silently missed its own deadline for reviewing its primary 2020 nomination process. It missed a self-imposed deadline in March this year to hold public hearings on Process 2020 and start improving the Process 2024. My only question is, will we ever find out who won the Iowa caucus?
“Big Tech Lobbyists Demolish Arizona’s App Store Law”
While focusing on state houses and electoral laws this year, I also delved into another piece of law circling the desks of state lawmakers across the country: an app store reform act. The bill would have ended the practice of charging app developers high fees for processing payments from Google and Apple, the two dominant cell phone operating systems. A fundamental story of monopoly power and control, the law had the best chance of getting passed in Arizona, but ultimately didn’t make it on the governor’s desk after an avalanche of corporate lobbying. But proponents of the law say it will come back.
Marcia Brown
Marcia Brown is a former Prospect Writer Fellow who is now a correspondent for The Capitol Forum, a subscription-based corporate investigation agency. She has also written for The Intercept, The New Republic and The Progressive.
Read more from Marcia Brown
December 28, 2021
5:15 a.m.
