WEBVTT - Changing Position on Insular Cases, Voting Rights 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.800 This is Bloomberg Law. A divided Supreme Court rejects a 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:09.800 religious challenge, tell us a little about the facts of 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:13.600 the case. Interviews with prominent attorneys in Bloomberg Legal experts, 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.919 I guess his former federal prosecutor Jimmy Garula joining me 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.760 is Bloomberg Law reporter Jordan Ruben. And analysis of important 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:24.160 legal issues, cases and headlines the Supreme Court takes on 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:28.560 state secrets. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the emergency rule? 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.599 Is this lawsuit for real? Bloomberg Law with June Grasso 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:39.599 from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Show. I'm 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.120 Kimberly Robinson and I'm Greg Store. We're in for Jane Grasso. 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.320 Coming up on the show allegations of voter fraud in 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.600 Florida and a big new whistleblower complaint against Twitter. But first, 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.720 the Justice Department is under pressure to change positions and 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.720 depending Supreme Court case and called for the justices to 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.000 overrule a series of cases that critics say makes resident 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.840 of US territory second class citizens with US isn't aware 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.679 of equally American who represents the plaintiff in the case 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.440 versus United States? Thanks for joining us my pleasure. I'm 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.760 glad to be on your show. So before we jump 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.400 into the cases that you're asking the justices to overturn, 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.800 these so called insular cases, can you tell me about 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.360 what you're asking the justices to do here? What is 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.880 it that your clients are asking for in this case? 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:32.119 So I represent John City c Manu and other individuals 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.880 born in American Samoa who are now currently living in 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:42.240 Utah and under discriminatory federal statute despite being born on 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.440 US soil, the federal government does not recognized in the citizens, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.760 instead labeling them with the subordinate status of non citis 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:56.520 the national. So this means they have US passports, they're Americans, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.520 but they're not citizens, and their passports and facts have 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.800 a disclaimer in them saying that the bearer of this 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.320 passport is a national, but not a citizen of the 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.360 United States. Now whatever that means, I mean that is 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:14.040 incredibly confusing to lawyers, much less to my clients. And 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.959 so as a result, they can't vote in state or 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.320 federal elections, they're ineligible for certain jobs, and all they're 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.480 asking the court to recognize is what citizenship clause of 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.560 the Fourteenth Amendment already guarantees that if you're born on 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.600 sovereign ust soil, you have a rights of citizenship. And 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.160 so you said earlier that there's actually a citizenship clause 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.320 in the Constitution that says, if you're born on American soil, 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.440 then you are an American citizen. And yet the territories 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.639 are subject to these statutes. And that's where these insular 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:48.680 cases come in. Right, Can you tell us a little 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.440 bit about this series of cases and what it is 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.000 that they held. And so the instant cases are a 0:02:55.040 --> 0:03:01.160 series of Supreme Court decisions decided following the Spanish American War, 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.880 when the United States found itself with these overseas territories 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:10.920 like Puerto Rico and Guam that were inhabited by population 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:18.200 that the Supreme Court justices disparaged as alien races, savages, uncivilized, 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:24.000 unset to be U S citizens. And up until the 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.520 Constitution had always recognized and lawyers had always recognized that 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.320 should the United States acquire areas the US territory, the 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.320 people born there would have a constitutional rights of citizenship. 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.920 Those territories would be on the past to statehood. But 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.280 with the acquisition of these overseas territories, political leaders didn't 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.520 want to extend those rights. The United States wanted to 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.960 join the Club of Imperial Nations, and the only thing 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.560 really standing in the way of that was the U. S. Constitution. 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.680 And so eventually, in a few years after the executive 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.120 brand mentioned, Congress try to buzz the lines. These questions 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.880 came to the U. S. Supreme Court, which essentially ruled 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:13.119 that Congress has discretion to act outside traditional constitutional limits 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.840 and that the people of these areas would never be 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.560 on the path to eventual full political participation, and that's 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:23.679 these areas could be held as colonies. And Justice John 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:28.560 Marshall Harlan, who folks may know as the Loan dissenter 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.599 and the Plussy versus Ferguson, was also the most local 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.560 dissenter in the Insular cases, really making the case that 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.960 our constitution is anti colonials. What would overturning the Insular 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.520 cases mean for American Samoa, and in particular, tell me 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.440 if I've got this wrong, but I understand the American 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.320 Samoa governments has been on the other side of this case, 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.240 and they've expressed concern that there are some cultural practices 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.520 in American Samoa, like the collective ownership of land requirements 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.719 that a certain percentage of the people who own land 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.960 have a certain percentage of their ancestry being Americans smoan. 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:10.320 Are those potential consequences that those practices would be deemed 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.440 unconstitutional if the Court were to overturn the insular cases. Yes, 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.320 so kind of. The most direct result of overruling in 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.920 cases would be simply to returning to where they stood 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.400 before them, which the United States has always had. Territories 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.440 have always been part of our constitutional structure. Congress has 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.960 always had broad power in those territories. But what the 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.720 Supreme Court and Congress's view prior to the iner cases 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.960 was is that certain stop signs of the Constitution provides, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.400 like the citizenship clause, that Congress has no power to 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:45.720 deny birthright citizenships, apply throughout the United States, including the territories. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.520 And what the Tent Circuit and other circuits and other 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:53.080 lower courts have done is dramatically expand the scope of 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.039 what the case has actually helped. With respect to the 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.840 opposition from elected officials in American sam MOA, there are 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.560 different views among elected officials within and between different territories. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.600 You know, American Samoa position comes down to this agreeing 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.080 with the United States that Congress has unfettered discretion to 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.560 answer this question of citizenship. UM and scholars have looked 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.400 at these concerns about these land ownership rules have really 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.960 identified that they're not related to questions of citizenship or 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.880 even the insular cases. In fact, an American Samoa right now, 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.080 the current case law, they're a case decided by three 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.880 federal District court judges sitting by designation in American Samoa 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.000 upheld those land rules without applying the inser cases framework, 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.960 but simply applying traditional equal protection analysis, which certainly applies 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.680 in each of the territories today. That's new where who 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.080 represents the plane of in fittymus on o versus the 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.520 United States. You're listening to Bloomberg Law. Up next, we 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.040 continue our conversation, including efforts to love the Biden administration 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.320 to switch sides. And Kimberly Robinson and I'm Greg Stewart. 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:09.159 This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Law with June Grasso 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.560 from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Gregg Storm and I'm Kimberly Robinson. 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:16.560 We're in for June Grasso. We've been talking with Niowere 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.200 of equally American about a case pending before the US 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.880 Supreme Court. Before we left, we were talking about the 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.480 cases that you're asking the justices to overturn. Now, tell 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:27.600 us a little bit about the lobbying effort to get 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.120 the US on your side in this case. What does 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.760 that look like, What steps are being taking and by 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.040 which groups? Yeah, so, you know, the question for the 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.960 Department of Justice and the Biden administration to decide is 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:44.320 whether to support or oppose calls to overrule the insular cases. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.680 And so just a few months ago, Justice Course such 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.120 a justice so to mayor both agreed that it was 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.640 time for the United States Supreme Court to overrule the 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:58.800 Insular cases. And echoing their views have been a broad 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:03.200 array of civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.040 Latino Justice pro Best, the Legal Defense Fund, and others 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:12.200 who have called upon the Biden administration to jettison these archaic, 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.680 racist Supreme Court decisions. At the same time, a number 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.960 of bar associations have also taken a stand, calling on 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.480 the Biden administration to support, rather than opposed, calls to 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.800 overrule the Inser cases. The American Bar Association, just a 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.560 couple of weeks ago passed a resolution supporting calls to 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:33.960 turn the page on the in cases and the colonial 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.959 playwork they established. The New York State Bar Association has 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.640 passed a similar resolution, with bar associations in the US, 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.760 Virgin Islands and Guam being very active and seeking to 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:50.480 advance equality and overruling the in cases. And we shall 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:54.280 soon hear what the Biden administration position is in these cases. 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.000 They're set to file their deadline as August twenty nine, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.959 so we'll soon know what they've decided. Then we'll look 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.440 beyond that to see what the Supreme Court has to set. 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.040 So there was a case last term involving social security 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.959 benefits in the island of Puerto Rico in which the 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.640 Biden administration did not ask the court to overturn the 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.640 insular cases. Is there something about your case that gives 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.640 you reason to hope that the administration may come out differently. Yeah. 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.839 The case last term, United States versus Via Madero, dealt 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:31.360 with the application of the Equal Protection Clause to federal 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.400 laws that deny federal benefits to residents a certain territories 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.760 while extending them to others, and all throughout the case, 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.320 while the cases kind of hung in the background. They 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.920 weren't central to the actual holdings of the lower courts, 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.840 and the United States had not relied on them to 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.079 advance the argument that residents of Porto Rico could be 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:58.480 denied on supplemental security income benefits and citizen monuversus United States. 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.240 The Department of Justices argument really begins and ends with 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:07.360 the cases, So unlike prior cases where the cases were 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.320 in the background, they really are front and center in 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.200 the fit Monum case, and in our petition we expressly 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.720 asked the Supreme Court to consider whether or not to 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:22.079 overrule the cases. You know, I'm remembering back under President Obama, 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:26.240 where the Justice Department did in fact change positions on 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.480 the Defense Against Marriage Act in the same sex marriage context, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.760 and just wondering how unusual is it for an administration 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.560 to kind of do a one eight. At the beginning 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.000 of Biden's term, the Justice Department did change a number 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.640 of its positions from what the Trump Justice Department had 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:48.360 been litigating. But in fact, probably the more apt president 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.959 to look at in terms of the Justice Department is 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.520 former Acting Solicitor General Neil katial Um. In the Obama 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.840 administration issued a confession of air with respect to the 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.720 Hormatsu case, that's the Japanese internment case, saying that the 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.880 United States have been wrong to argue in favor of 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:11.360 Japanese internment and really condemning those cases even as they 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:15.600 remained quote unquote good law under Supreme Court precedent. And 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.360 that's really what all that we're asking the Listener General 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.160 to do here. We wrote her a letter claiming that 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.520 the Justice Departments simply don't rely on these racist cases. 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.320 If they want to continue defending the discriminatory statutes, that's 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.599 up to them. They do have some other arguments, but 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.400 what they shouldn't do is rely on cases that sit 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.160 in the same class as Plessy versus Ferguson, Dread Scott, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.240 and Cormatsu Um. So, you know, that's what what arguments 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.600 the Department Justice makes to advance their cases completely within 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.760 their discretion. And it's actually a much less of a 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.000 lift for them to decide to stop relying on racist 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.800 Supreme Court cases than other examples like don't know where 0:11:55.800 --> 0:12:00.040 they actually changed their litigating position to support the others 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.040 five and they had been supporting in the case. Remind 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.680 us just exactly where this case stands. This is not 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:10.400 a case that the Justices have agreed to consider yet, right, Yeah, 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.440 we're still at the review stage. And so at the 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.080 district court, the district court judge ruled in favor of Mr. 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.000 City Simano, recognizing that under Constitution he had the rights 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.920 to citizenship. At the circuit court stage, that decision was 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.280 reversed two to one, with three separate opinions being written 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.040 by the judges at the Tent Circuit. We appealed for 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.719 review by the full Tent Circuit. Weren't successful, but two 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.920 judges did write a very long and scholarly opinion dissenting 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.800 to the denial of that review. And so now we've 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.800 asked the court to take up the case. The anarchist 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.880 briefs that then filed in support of the Supreme Court review. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.400 And now when people hear from the United States Department 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.920 Justice in the Sister of General on whether they will 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.959 support or oppose the calls to overrule the INFIR case 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.720 is in this case, Neil. One final question. You know 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.600 we've been talking about, you know, how these cases have 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.800 been criticized sort of across the board, including from the 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.320 justices themselves, you know, across the ideological spectrum. Why is 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.320 it that these cases are still on the books and 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.040 still considered good law. What work are they doing now 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.360 that might make the justices hesitate to take them off 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.640 the books. It's really not clear, and that's been one 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.240 the challenges and overruling them. You know, over the last 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.240 five years, there's been three or four big Supreme Court 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.920 cases involving Puerto Rico, where again the inser cases kind 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.320 of hung in the background, but as the Supreme Court 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.040 you know, says they should be helped to their facts 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:46.800 and narrows them that limit situations where they necessarily arise 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.680 and are central to the disposition of a case. So 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.480 ours is one of perhaps the only situations where lower 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.720 courts would squarely rely on the cases to reach the 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.400 legal result in a case, you know, the Department of 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.920 Justice has been hesitant to call in the Supreme Court 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.719 to overrule them, even when pressed by Justice Court. That's 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.040 three or four separate times, and the argument last term, 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:15.360 and the Justices themselves until recently have been hesitants too, 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.080 so not kind of reaching out to decide the issue 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.000 even when you know it's been in the mix. And 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.640 that's problematic because you know, the Supreme Court itself is 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.440 responsible for the development of this doctrine. You know, the 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.760 Supreme Court and the Instant their cases reached well beyond 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.960 um the issues in the case to establish this colonial framework. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.480 So just as the Supreme Court and the justices who 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.920 sit on it were themselves responsible for the instant cases, 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.800 they also need to be responsible for some of the 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:48.640 solution and addressing the harms that have splunk from that 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.600 of the last more than twenty years. Well, thanks so 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.760 much to our guests nowhere. You're listening to Bloomberg Law. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.320 I'm Kimberly Robinson and I'm Greg Store. Coming up next. 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.760 Florida has arrested meet people for voter fraud, even though 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.440 many of those people say they thought they were entitled 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:15.600 to vote. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloombird Law with 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:20.200 June Grasso from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Kimberly Robinson and I'm 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.680 Greg Store. We're in for June Grasso. Florida Governor Ron 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.520 De Santis last week trumpeted the arrest of twenty people 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.080 who allegedly committed voter fraud by casting ballots, even though 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.680 they were convicted felons. But it turns out. Many of 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.320 those people say they thought they were entitled to vote. 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.920 With us to talk about this is Neil Voles. He 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:43.000 is the deputy director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. Neil, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:48.000 this all stems from a balled initiative that your group sponsored. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.760 Tell us what that balled initiative did. Yeah, well, Gregg 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.360 kimberly one, thanks for having having us on and shining 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.240 a light on this important issue. In two thousand eighteen, 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:01.440 the voters of Florida past Amendment four, which restored the 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.600 voting eligibility for nearly one point four million people with 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.040 past felony convictions. At folks like myself and others in 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.800 our movement who had passed felony convictions and who up 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.240 until that point had to deal with a lifetime voting 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.960 ban in the state of Florida. So this was there's 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.000 a little bit of history here, because this is kind 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:20.960 of like a Dickens novel, right, the best of times 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:22.560 the worst of times. On one hand, we saw the 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.720 largest expansion of democracy in our country in a generation, 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.000 but we also saw the implementation of that amendment end 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.160 up requiring people to pay certain financial obligations before they 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.360 are in fact eligible to vote, which means that there 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.280 are hundreds of thousands of people with past convictions who 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.720 are still not yet able to vote in a state 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.680 of Florida. That's right. Yeah, that was one of the 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.880 questions that I had was, you know, there is this 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.400 requirement that felons have to pay off all fines and 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.000 fees before being able to vote. What effect does that 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.280 have with restoring voting rights? Is there any kind of 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.080 evidence that most people have been able to get their 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.160 voting rights back or is this being a of the 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.960 book for that well one. As far as our organization 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.200 and this movement, I mean, we just give up every day, 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:07.720 you know, kind of put our work boots on and 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.119 just keep moving forward. And I know according to the 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.720 voter file last months voter file UM, there are but 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.840 two hundred sixteen thousand people with past convictions who are 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.960 currently registered in the state of Florida. And that's a 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:20.720 lot of people, a lot of families, a lot of 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.240 voices being heard. But we know there's still a long 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.399 way to go, especially when you consider that there are 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.879 hundreds of thousands of people who have continue and not 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.359 be eligible because they ope financial obligations. What do you 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.760 see are the impacts of these arrests if we see 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.639 that defines and the implementing the legislation is kind of 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.119 holding up the ability of people to regain the right 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.000 to vote. Is this going to have any effect on 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.879 that as well? Yeah, I mean to be honest with you, 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.000 there's such a human element to this, and you know, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.520 there's not a better advocate for democracy, in my opinion, 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.560 than somebody lost the right to vote and got it back. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.000 So we know that there's a deeper conversation going on 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.280 here about how we see each other and and and 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.800 and the role in society. But on a very tangible level, 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.000 it also just shines a light on an issue that 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.400 we've been talking about for the last four years since 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.119 the passage of Amendment four. Everywhere we go publicly in 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.439 private meetings, we've been saying the same thing that the 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.920 process is broken, that what we need is a statewide 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.359 database that would allow people to become eligible or understand 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.720 that they're eligible vote from the government on the front end, 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.720 because everybody who's being impacted by this latest move by 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.639 the governor and this election police course actually is in 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.520 the spot in which we should not be um We 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.639 know that when someone registers the vote is it's the 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.879 responsibility of the state that determined an individual's eligibility prior 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.920 to issue a voter identification card. So we're talking about 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.919 people who got identification card voter ID cards from the 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.800 government and therefore it gone through the front end of 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:57.680 the process. To then spend time and um taxpayer dollars 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:02.040 investigating and law enforcements time and now arresting people who 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.239 have been given voter ID cards on the front end 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.120 years ago just seems like we're not doing it right, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:08.800 because at the end of the day, the best way 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:10.720 to fight crime is to stop it from happening in 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.399 the first place. Tell us a little more about what 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.960 you're reading and hearing about the people who were arrested 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.679 and why they say they thought they were entitled to vote, 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.760 in addition to the fact that they actually had those 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.640 voter registration cards that you mentioned. Yeah, it's a great question, 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.680 and it just kind of exemplifies kind of the humanity 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.600 of this story, right because across the state, we have 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.640 individuals with their individual stories and family members who are 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.879 reaching out to us who are concerned about their loved ones, 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.560 and we know that it's important for people to be 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.360 able to know that somebody's got their back. And then 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.480 that's the role of FRC and reaching out and talking 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.760 and walking it out with people who are impacted by this. 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:58.000 The through line of these conversations really just keeps coming 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.760 back to the fact that the states them is not 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.000 working for anybody, right that, uh, you know, we need 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.120 to fix the system to prevent the criminalization of voting, 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.800 and the waste will spending the tax dollars to investigate 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.120 and prosecute flow to citizens. Right, It's just less costly 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.720 and easier to prevent those situations from happening in the 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.480 first place. And when you talk to somebody who gets 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:21.800 caught up in that process, you know, we don't know 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:26.560 exactly what every individual's case is. Somebody might have come 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.520 in from another state and they they thought that their 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:33.639 conviction had been you know, cleared up, or somebody you know, 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.600 went through the clemency process and and and and had 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.520 their voting rights restored. We don't know everybody's individual situation. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:42.880 But that's part of the situation that we're dealing with, 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.639 which is the government is the one who can provide 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.119 assurances for folks who are voting. You know, if you 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.919 can't rely on the government to verify their voting and eligibility. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.240 Who can they rely on? And so to come back 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.679 years afterwards and to begin to prosecute people just shows 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.520 how the system isn't working. Okay, thank you very much. 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.000 That was Neil Voles, the deputy director of the Florida 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.959 Rights Restoration Coalition. Coming up next, Twitter faces a whistleblower 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.359 complaint file by its former security chief. I'm Greg Store 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:22.200 and I'm Kimberly Robinson. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:27.080 Law with June Brusso from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Kimberly Robinson 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.439 and I'm Greg Store. We're in for June Brusso. Twitter 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.040 is facing a new whistleblower complaint with its former head 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.240 of security claiming severe shortcomings and the company's handling of 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.800 users personal data. News of the complaints sent Twitter shares 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.480 tumbling on Tuesday. With us to talk about it is 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:47.520 Bloomberg News reporter Leah Nilan. She covers the Federal Trade Commission. Leah, 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:49.840 thanks for being here. Let's start off by just telling 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.520 us who this whistleblower is. Yeah. So, Peter Zak was 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.840 the head of cybersecurity for Twitter. He was brought in 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:01.280 about after there was another hack of Twitter system, and 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.320 he was there until January when he was fired by 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:09.720 the Twitter CEO allegedly for performance issues. UM he filed 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:13.359 a whistle blower complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, the 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.840 Justice Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. That whistleblower 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.600 complaint was also sent to members of Congress, and so 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.040 you know, the allegations here are said not only to 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:29.280 put user data at risk, but also UM, perhaps national security. 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:31.600 Can you tell us about what allegations are actually in 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.400 the whistle blower complaint. There's a lot of them. So 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.920 there are several allegations about bots, the number of bots 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.280 that Twitter says it has on its platform versus what 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.320 it internally thinks are on the system. This is an issue, 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.000 of course in um elon Musk's potential takeover of Twitter 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:51.600 and the lawsuit that is now pending up in Delaware 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.840 that's going to trial in October. The other big issue 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:58.439 is that Twitter has been under order with the Federal 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.520 Trade Commission over at cybrus A scurity practices since two 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.359 thousand eleven. There was at hack back in two thousand 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:07.399 nine that the FTC investigated and then they reached the 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:10.920 settlement with Twitter then um and put them under order. 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:13.120 So they are supposed to be reporting to the FTC 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.760 things on their privacy and data security for twenty years. 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:21.120 He says that Twitter has not accurately been portraying things 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.600 about its privacy and data security to federal regulators, and 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:27.120 that they have been in violation of this consent decree. 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:30.000 This would not actually be the first time that Twitter 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:33.200 had violated the consent decree. It has already paid a 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:36.480 hundred and fifty million dollars to the Federal Trade Commission 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:40.520 for taking user phone numbers that users had uploaded for 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:44.920 security purposes and using them for targeted advertising. What has 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:48.160