The center has tasted failure along with celebrating success. In recent years, there was concern the center’s Democracy Program was doing too much. Geri Mannion says there was a risk it was spreading itself too thin, as was demonstrated by the Free Expression Policy Project, which was dropped by the center last year. Its aim of fighting censorship and “democratizing the mass media” did not fit in with the center’s strategic plan.

The program was picked up on “an experimental basis,” Goldberg says. But it “didn’t integrate as well” as the other projects. “Better to be able to set some priorities and go with them,” Goldberg explains. “I do think it is possible to do too much.”

And despite the center’s success in court and in forging coalitions, it still is fighting its first battle. A dozen years of Brennan’s efforts have failed to overturn the Buckley decision. “We don’t think we are going to overturn Buckley anymore,” Goldberg says, “but we do think there is a legislative strategy” instead that includes working with members of Congress on a public funding bill for congressional elections.

A recent example also demonstrates the difficulty of fostering Brennan’s agenda with the current Supreme Court. Along with other groups, Brennan was a force behind a Supreme Court case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. The groups opposed the requirement to present certain photo identification at the polls, such as a driver’s license, which they say can discourage the elderly and poor from voting.

Brennan and other supporters lost their challenge in late April 2008, when the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold the Indiana voter ID law. Given the makeup of the Supreme Court, Brennan officials had realized even before the ruling they would likely lose the case.

But Indiana’s presidential primary election helped to dramatize their point less than a week later. The Associated Press reported that “about a dozen nuns in their 80s and 90s at St. Mary’s Convent in South Bend were denied ballots because they lacked the necessary identification.” Another nun serving as a poll worker had no choice but to turn them away because of the law.

In a nod to the Center’s efforts, the worldwide wire service article quoted Brennan’s Myrna Perez, who was coordinating a hotline for spurned voters. Perez also observed that on the other end of the age spectrum, a young woman was unable to cast her first vote because she could only produce her college ID and an out-of-state driver’s license, neither of which was acceptable for voting in Indiana.

The defeat may also serve to energize Brennan’s base of support by dramatizing the challenges ahead. In fact, Brennan Center executive director Michael Waldman sent an e-mail to supporters on the day the ruling came out, warning “we do expect that there will be a major push in state legislatures and Congress to pass very restrictive voter ID laws, this year or next.”

Brennan’s Waldman also noted “we are moving to strike down other barriers to voting and fair elections” in court cases. But he also pointed to the potential for legislative action, as with the Buckley case. “We will be putting forward a draft proposal for universal voter registration, including Election Day Registration, for Congress and others to consider,” Waldman promised Brennan supporters. He also solicited their input on new strategies.

The center is bridging ideological divides by allying with strange political bedfellows for a liberal-oriented organization. One example is religious groups, Erika Wood was in her Brennan office one day this spring strategizing on how to partner with former Nixon aide Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries on efforts to restore voting rights for felons. “I love working with what we call unusual allies,” she says.

For example, conservative legal scholar Bruce Fein is generally on the opposite end of issues from the Brennan Center. “I certainly wouldn’t subscribe to their tirades against campaign finance money,” he explains, linking the center to positions often on a “Democratic liberal agenda.”

But along with ideological opposite Burt Neuborne, Fein wrote an essay for the Brennan Center on judicial independence because he finds the idea of electing judges “misguided.”

One recent Brennan success stems from its drive to make voter registration easier and ultimately, universal. Early this year, the Brennan Center won a permanent injunction in a lawsuit challenging restrictions on voter registration drives in the pivotal state of Ohio. “We make trouble and that’s a good thing,” declares Goldberg, who is leaving Brennan for another position.