“The Airtight Case Against Texas’ Mail-In Voting Age Requirements”

March 26, 2024, 2:53 pmvotingRick Hasen

David Gans at Slate: In Texas and a number of other states, voters age 65 and older have the right to vote by mail for any reason, while younger voters generally have to cast ballots in person. As a result,… Continue reading

“Coordination in Plain Sight: The Breadth and Uses of ‘Redboxing’ in Congressional Elections”

March 22, 2024, 7:09 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Gabriel Foy-Sutherland and Saurav Ghosh have written this article for ELJ. Here is the abstract: This article examines the campaign strategy known as “redboxing.” Redboxing refers to efforts by candidates and parties to bypass laws prohibiting them from coordinating campaign… Continue reading

“Supreme Betrayal: A requiem for Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment”

March 14, 2024, 11:35 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Judge Luttig and Laurence Tribe in the Altantic: The Supreme Court of the United States did a grave disservice to both the Constitution and the nation in Trump v. Anderson. In a stunning disfigurement of the Fourteenth Amendment, the… Continue reading

“It’s Too Soon to Say if the Colorado Ballot Case Was a Loss for Anti-Trump Forces”

March 11, 2024, 7:28 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Mark Graber for the Washington Monthly: In deciding for Trump, the Supreme Court acquired no additional political capital that might be employed against progressive rights and institutions. Instead, the opinion in Trump v. Anderson discredits conservative claims that the Court is making decisions… Continue reading

Is the internal dispute in Trump v. Anderson a tempest in a teapot?

March 6, 2024, 6:39 amSupreme CourtDerek Muller

The more I try to parse out the dispute between the majority’s Part II-A of its opinion (and other language) and the opinion concurring in the judgment in Trump v. Anderson, the less confident I am that I understand… Continue reading

“Newly Released Messages Detail Roots of the ‘Fake Electors’ Scheme”

March 4, 2024, 1:01 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Just five days after Election Day in 2020, a conservative lawyer named Kenneth Chesebro emailed a former judge who was working for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, James R. Troupis, pitching an idea for how to overturn the results.… Continue reading

Fourteenth Amendment federalism over Electoral College federalism in Trump v. Anderson

March 4, 2024, 8:54 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

This sentence, perhaps more than any other, in my judgment, drives the decision in Trump v. Anderson (and the unanimous consensus of the Supreme Court): Because federal officers “‘owe their existence and functions to the united voice of the whole,… Continue reading

“Law School clinic files brief to combat intentionally false statements about voting”

February 28, 2024, 7:46 amcheap speech, chicanery, First Amendment theoryRick Hasen

Yale Daily News: Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic filed an amicus brief on Feb. 12 in United States v. Mackey, a case currently at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The case involves an influential… Continue reading

“Supreme Court Seems Wary of State Laws Regulating Social Media Platforms”

February 26, 2024, 5:35 pmcheap speech, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Adam Liptak for the NYT: The Supreme Court seemed skeptical on Monday of laws in Florida and Texas that bar major social media companies from making editorial judgments about which messages to allow. The laws were enacted in an effort… Continue reading

“Election Deniers Seek to Rewrite the Law”

February 21, 2024, 4:14 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

NYT: In the conspiracy-soaked aftermath of the 2020 election, far-right activists clamored to inspect ballots based on elaborate — and false — theories. In Georgia, election deniers pushed for a review that might detect counterfeit ballots because they were not… Continue reading

“The President of the Senate, the Original Public Meaning of the Twelfth Amendment, and the Electoral Count Reform Act”

February 21, 2024, 11:56 amelection law and constitutional law, electoral collegeDerek Muller

The Case Western Reserve Law Review has just published my article, “The President of the Senate, the Original Public Meaning of the Twelfth Amendment, and the Electoral Count Reform Act.” Here is the abstract: When Congress convenes under… Continue reading

“At worst [Douglas Mackey’s tweets containing false information about how to vote] were calculated to cause voters to send futile text messages and then stay home on election day.”

February 21, 2024, 7:30 amchicanery, First Amendment theoryRick Hasen

Pretty remarkable statement in Douglas Mackey’s reply brief in his criminal appeal before the Second Circuit. To me, the “at worst” it seems pretty bad! As a reminder, Protect Democracy and the Yale Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic filed … Continue reading

Yale Law Journal Forum Collection: State and Local Corruption After Percoco and Ciminelli

February 17, 2024, 6:37 ambribery, chicaneryRick Hasen

This looks like it will be very useful: FORUM What Are Federal Corruption Prosecutions for? Lauren M. Ouziel This Essay considers the role of prosecutors in the Supreme Court’s decades-long contraction of public corruption law. It examines how federal prosecutors’… Continue reading

ELB Book Corner: Ann Southworth: “$peech”

February 14, 2024, 5:35 amcampaign finance, ELB Book Corner, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I am pleased to welcome Ann Southworth to the ELB Book Corner, author of the new book, Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending (Chicago). The discount code for ELB readers is BIGMONEY2023. This is the first… Continue reading