Prospect Writing Fellows Marcia Brown and Brittany Gibson wrapped up their fellowships in 2021, but not before delivering some excellent work. We asked Marcia and Brittany to share their favorites of the year.
Marcia Brown
Nearly a year into the Biden administration, Prospect readers may be eager to see Democrats turn to executive action to realize a progressive agenda. But that hasn’t totally come to pass.
“Still Stuck—and Endangered—on the Border”
Among the possibilities at the president’s fingertips are ending horrific and cruel immigration policies including “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42, a public-health order the Trump administration first introduced to close the border to immigrants and asylum seekers. President Biden has continued both policies, and indeed they are now Biden policies, not Trump policies. I wrote a story about how the end of those programs felt delayed in June, and it’s December and we’re still doing that.
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“The One Union Biden Has Not Supported”
Also, the administration has not yet recognized the immigration judges’ union, an organization that had historically enabled immigration judges to push for a more independent judiciary less subject to anti-immigrant political whims. We wrote about that in March.
“Physical Mail Could Be Eliminated at Federal Prisons”
Similarly, the president could end a pilot program to eliminate physical mail in federal prisons. The justification for the program is to stop drugs from getting into prisons through mail laced with illicit substances. But the reality is that most drugs don’t enter prisons this way, and the program is instead one more way for private companies to profit and removes yet another connection incarcerated people have to their families and supporters on the outside.
“How the Supreme Court Protects Robinhood”
I’d also like to highlight my coverage of the brokerage app Robinhood’s forced arbitration clause, and the widespread use of such clauses across our economy.
“Did CNN Air a Staged Migrant Crossing of the Rio Grande?”
And finally, here’s my coverage of a CNN TV spot of migrants crossing the Rio Grande—footage which was not all that it seemed.
Brittany Gibson
What’s an elections reporter to do for the first half of an off-year? This year, there was no shortage of stories to tell.
“A Tale of Two Senate Rallies”
2021 started by finishing the 2020 cycle with two Georgia Senate runoff elections, where Democrats took both seats in competitive races. For TAP, I was on the trail throughout the state, and in this article I catalogued the differences between the Republican and Democratic rallies. The final days of all four campaigns were packed with campaign events where the candidates spoke to two very different sets of voter priorities. The rallies represented a division that’s continued throughout the state—and country—as election results continue to be doubted by a non-negligible portion of Republican voters.
“Trump’s Last Stand”
A fascinating tool of the Trump era was the Trump rally. In Dalton, Georgia, on the eve of the runoff elections, I spoke with rally attendees about their election fraud concerns and how they still thought Trump could win the November general election by mid-January. It was an issue that I didn’t think would persist well into 2021—let alone 2022. But I suppose that it just goes to show how wrong reporters can be sometimes. Case in point, this article is titled “Trump’s Last Stand,” and he held one of his most memorable rallies the day after it was published and has held many more rallies since.
“Republicans Work to Reverse Increases in Voter Turnout”
When the 2021 legislative sessions began, many GOP lawmakers took this opportunity to roll back access to the ballot that had temporarily been expanded because of COVID. More than 100 bills were introduced or rolled over that would limit voting options or increase the barriers to voting, either in person or by mail. And several of the bills passed, including bills in the battlegrounds Georgia and Texas. President Joe Biden’s response was to pass H.R. 1 and H.R. 4; both bills expand voting access uniformly across the country. But it’s still unclear when there’ll be follow-through on those ambitions.
“As Republicans Suppress the Vote, What Are Democrats Doing About Their Own Selection Process?”
While Republicans and Democrats alike were dealing with new voting laws introduced in state legislatures, as well as possible federal bills impacting voting rights, and drafting their postmortems on the 2020 cycle, the DNC was quietly missing its own deadline for reviewing its 2020 primary nomination process. It missed a self-imposed deadline in March of this year to hold public hearings about the 2020 process and begin to make improvements to the 2024 process. My only question is, will we ever find out who won the Iowa caucus?
“Big Tech Lobbyists Take Down Arizona’s App Store Bill”
While focusing on statehouses and election law this year, I also dove into another law that was circling the desks of state legislators around the country: an app store reform bill. The bill would have ended the practice of app developers being charged high fees for payment processing by Google and Apple, the two dominant cellphone operating systems. A basic story on monopoly power and control, the legislation had the best chance of passing in Arizona but ultimately failed to make it to the governor’s desk after an avalanche of corporate lobbying. But advocates of the legislation say it will be back.
