Ari Berman
Ari Berman is a former senior contributing writer for The Nation magazine, where he worked until 2017,[1] and current Mother Jones contributor.[2] He is a Journalism Fellow at Type Media Center (formerly The Nation Institute).[3] Berman's writing primarily focuses on voting rights and voter suppression. He is the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, which highlights the history of voting rights in the U.S. since 1965.
Contents
News and Controversies
Support from Hilary Clinton
In September 2019, Hillary Clinton tweeted support of a panel discussion on voter rights and voter suppression that included Berman.[4]
Support for 2019 For the People Act
After House Democrats introduced the 2019 For the People Act, Berman called it "the most important democracy reform bill introduced since the Watergate era",[5] mentioning how it would include "automatic voter registration, Election Day registration, restoring voting rights to ex-felons, making Election Day a federal holiday."[5] In his appearance, he also talked about gerrymandering and the restoration of voting rights to Florida felons who had served their sentence, pointing out how "a lot of white Republicans [along with] black Democrats or Latino independents" had been disenfranchised by their previous felony convictions.[5]
Voter ID Problems for Native Americans
In October 2018, Berman expressed concerns that a Republican voter ID law could disenfranchise as many as 5,000 Native Americans because most tribal IDs do not contain a residential address and "this law was specifically written to not allow P.O. boxes count as an address."[6] He wished this voter suppression "got a fraction of the attention of Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test or Donald Trump’s Pocahontas slurs. And I think what we should be focusing on instead of her ancestry is all the barriers that are being faced by Native Americans in this country."[6]
Ohio Voter Roll Purge as a form of Voter Suppression
In June 2018, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow the state of Ohio to purge over thousands of temporarily inactive voters from its voter rolls,[7] Berman appeared on Democracy Now!.[8] Berman mentioned the historical and modern prevalence of voter suppression in the U.S., saying "This is just one of many voter suppression tactics we’re seeing, along with voter ID laws, cutting early voting, making it harder to register to vote. Voter purging is part of this. And it’s a relic of the Jim Crow era. This was done in the Jim Crow South: make it as hard as possible for black voters to be able to register, and even if they do register, then you purge them from the rolls."[8] He also told Amy Goodman "The thing about voter purging that really is so problematic is that people don't know that they're purged from the rolls until they show up at the polls. Then they're not able to vote and there's nothing they can do about it."[8]
Content of Writing
2020 Census Citizenship Question
Throughout 2018 and 2019, Berman wrote several pieces about the Trump administration's attempt to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census.
- Ari Berman, "House Votes to Hold Top Trump Officials in Criminal Contempt for Withholding Census Documents", Mother Jones, July 17, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Trump Dropped the Census Citizenship Question. He Could Still Shift Power to White Republicans.", Mother Jones, July 17, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Trump Backs Down on the Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, July 11, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Trump Administration Shockingly Revives Push for Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, July 5, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "There Will Not Be a Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census", Mother Jones, July 2, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Why It’s Almost Impossible for the Citizenship Question to Make It Onto the Census", Mother Jones, June 27, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Supreme Court Rejects Trump Administration’s “Contrived” Rationale for Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, June 27, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Federal Judge Opens a Longshot Path to Striking Down Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, June 24, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Census Case Could Cement John Roberts’ Legacy of Upholding White Power", Mother Jones, June 19, 2019.
- Ari Berman, House Democrats Hold Trump Officials in Contempt for Withholding Census Documents", Mother Jones, June 12, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Judge Deals a Blow to Effort to Block Census Citizenship Question at Supreme Court", Mother Jones, June 5, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "That Bombshell Evidence in the Census Case? The Supreme Court Might Ignore It.", Mother Jones, June 4, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Architect of GOP Gerrymandering Was Behind Trump’s Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, May 30, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "A Second Federal Court Just Struck Down the 2020 Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, March 6, 2019.
- Ari Berman, "Judge Strikes Down Controversial Citizenship Question on 2020 Census", Mother Jones, January 2019.
- Ari Berman, "The Trial Over Trump’s Census Citizenship Question Did Not Go Well for the Administration", Mother Jones, November, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "We Now Know Why Steve Bannon and Kris Kobach Lobbied for a Citizenship Question on the Census", Mother Jones, June, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "Republicans Want to Use the Census to Radically Change Political Representation", Mother Jones, June, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "ACLU Sues Trump Over Census: 'A Naked Act of Intentional Discrimination'", Mother Jones, June, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "17 States Sue the Trump Administration Over Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, April, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "Trump Administration Creates Census Crisis With Move to Suppress Immigrant Responses", Mother Jones, March, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "California Sues Trump Administration Over Census Citizenship Question", Mother Jones, March, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "The White House Is Lying About the Census", Mother Jones, March, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "Hidden Figures: How Donald Trump Is Rigging the Census", Mother Jones, March, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "Trump’s Plan to Rig the Census, Explained", Mother Jones, March, 2018.
- Ari Berman, "Trump Is Fundraising Off a Question That Would Scare Immigrants Away From the Census", Mother Jones, March, 2018.
Books
- Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America(2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) ISBN 0374158274
- Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics(2010, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) ISBN 0374169705
Awards
- 2017, Izzy Award[9]
Education
- B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University
Contact Information
Ari Berman, senior reporter at Mother Jones
Facebook: /aribermanauthor
Twitter: @AriBerman
References
- ↑ The Nation, Ari Berman, organizational website, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ Mother Jones, Ari Berman, organizational website, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ Type Media Center, Our Journalism Fellows, organizational website, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ Hillary Clinton, 1174016700691427328, Twitter, September 17, 2019, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Democracy Now!, "Ari Berman: Dems Introduce Sweeping Voting Rights Bill to Combat Rampant Voter Suppression", January 7, 2019, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Democracy Now!, "Ari Berman: Republicans in North Dakota Are Attempting to Disenfranchise Thousands of Native Voters", Democracy Now!, October 16, 2018, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ Pete Williams, "Supreme Court gives Ohio right to purge thousands of voters from its rolls", NBC News, June 11, 2018, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Democracy Now!, "'Relic of Jim Crow Era': Ari Berman on Supreme Court’s Decision to Uphold Ohio’s Voter Purge", Democracy Now!, June 13, 2018, accessed September 27, 2019.
- ↑ Ithaca College, The Annual Izzy Award, college website, accessed September 27, 2019.
