KOR In The News

To legitimize otherwise questionable investigations, Congress occasionally labels them after a previous successful effort. Thus, the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives’ proposed select committee, which plans to investigate the “weaponization of government,” is being described as “the new Church committee,” after the group of senators who investigated the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and other groups from…

Editor’s note: To hear a conversation with Mary McCord and Andrew Weissmann about paths to reform after the January 6th report, including addressing paramilitary groups, listen to the Just Security podcast here. Two years ago, when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol and ruptured our country’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, images of the mob’s extremism…

After the unrelenting crusade by election deniers to overturn the 2020 election, which reached its low point, if not its end, with the January 6 riot, many Americans concerned about our democracy approached the 2022 midterms with trepidation. They breathed a sigh of relief as voters in key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona rejected…

This week the Supreme Court of the United States is hearing Moore v. Harper, a case with potentially devastating consequences for our democracy. In that case the Court is considering whether to adopt the “independent state legislature” theory to interpret the election clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The gist of this theory is that since…

This lame duck Congress has a lot on its plate, and many of these items have received considerable coverage: the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, reform of the Electoral Count Act, and, as always, government funding. But there’s one more issue sitting before the House right now that deserves attention. Several important bills…

Over the last several years many have bemoaned the plague of extraordinarily deep partisan divides spreading across the country, fraying our unity, undermining social trust, and tearing at our democracy. At first blush, the midterm results offer two contrasting takeaways about this: the divides seem a little less intense, yet the extremist views that drive…

Local election workers and volunteers who work the polls, count the votes and otherwise make sure our elections are fair and secure have long been unheralded and underappreciated. But the importance of their work and the challenges they face have never been fully recognized. Misinformation and conspiracy theories propagated in recent years, and particularly since…

It could take days or even months to know the final results of Tuesday’s election. That’s especially true of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race between John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz which, based on polls, could come down to a “razor’s edge” margin. Moreover, once the vote is counted, candidates and parties are likely to challenge…

York, PA — Just hours after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court drops a ruling on a case involving undated mail ballots, more questions than answers remain. Undated ballots is just one of a slew of potential legal issues heading into the midterm election. With over 1.4 million mail ballots in the mix for this midterm election, court…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s evenly divided result in the latest case seeking clarity on vote-by-mail rules is a set up for “utter chaos” after polls close in the midterm elections next week, retired federal Judge John E. Jones said. In a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday, Jones and two more retired federal judges from across…

On a recent evening at the Keystone Horse Center, in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, the fifty-eight-year-old Republican candidate for governor and a onetime insurrectionist, climbed onto a dais in the soft dirt of the show ring, surrounded by chrysanthemums. Columbia County occupies an edge of the state’s northeastern coal region. Mastriano, who is tall…

One Sunday afternoon in November, several of President Jimmy Carter’s former aides and advisers met on Zoom for a private call. Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of State, made an appearance, along with Dick Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader. Les Francis, a former deputy White House chief of staff in the Carter administration, was…