The APSA Law and Political Process Study group has organized the roundtable panel “Building the Future of Multiracial Democracy: The Role of Political Scientists and Law Professors.” The panel will take place on Thursday, September 5, 4:00 to 5:30pm, in Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, 502. Please join us!

This panel delves into the critical role that political scientists and law professors play in addressing the challenges to and opportunities for fostering a robust multiracial democracy. With a focus on election law, political violence, demographic changes, and the rise of identity politics, the panel aims to explore innovative solutions and strategies for advancing multiracial democracy. The session will feature insights from leading scholars, highlighting interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative efforts to navigate the complexities of our current political landscape.

Participants:

• Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Professor of Law, Drexel University
• Didi Kuo, Center Fellow, Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
• Spencer Overton, Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Multiracial Democracy Project, George Washington University
• Andrew Thompson, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
• Co-Chairs: Emily Rong Zhang, UC Berkeley School of Law and Rick Hasen, UCLA School of Law

Thanks to Rick Hasen for the opportunity to guest blog over the past 14 days. In maintaining this blog Rick builds community and provides a service to us all. I’m appreciative of the blog and his many other contributions to our field. Thanks also to those of you who flagged items for me over the past couple of weeks.  

I’m excited to turn the blog over to Dr. Tabatha Abu El-Haj of the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Tabatha is a friend and prolific First Amendment and political process scholar who recently wrapped up her term as chair of the AALS Election Law Section.

Washington Post:

The federal judge presiding over the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump rejected Saturday a defense effort to dismiss the indictment on claims that he was prosecuted for vindictive and political purposes.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is the first substantive order since the case was returned to her Friday following a landmark Supreme Court opinion last month that conferred broad immunity for former presidents and narrowed special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump.

CNBC:

….If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they’ll be prompted to enter their email addresses and ZIP code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign-up section.

But for users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.

If they agree to submit all that, the system still does not steer them to a voter registration page. Instead, it shows them a “thank you” page.

So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.

Specifically, a political action committee created by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one aimed at giving the Republican presidential nominee Trump an advantage in his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee.

Politico:

The stalled criminal case against Donald Trump for seeking to subvert the 2020 election is starting to move.

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity — a breathtaking legal victory for Trump’s bid to sideline his criminal prosecutions — had kept the election-subversion case on ice for months. Even after the July 1 ruling, the high court’s rules required a one-month delay to give prosecutors the chance to ask the justices to reconsider the outcome.

On Friday, that window closed. The case was returned to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which took just minutes to send the matter back to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been in a holding pattern since December awaiting the outcome of the immunity fight.

On Saturday, Chutkan took her first steps in the case in months, setting an August 16 hearing to consider setting a new schedule. She has asked for prosecutors and Trump to offer their own thinking on the matter in writing by August 9. 

Washington Post:

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is relying on a cluster of loosely coordinated outside groups to run turnout operations traditionally performed by the campaign itself, an approach that takes advantage of new leniencies in campaign finance rules but comes with the risk of untested outfits duplicating efforts or working at cross purposes.

With fewer than 100 days left before the election, local GOP officials in battleground states have raised alarms about the scant presence of Trump campaign field staff. For the large armies of paid and volunteer door-knockers and canvassers that typically drive turnout in presidential elections, the campaign is largely relying on outside groups such as America First Works, America PAC and Turning Point Action.

Washington Post:

Democratic delegates began online voting Thursday in a process that almost certainly will result in Harris formally becoming the party’s nominee, since she is the only candidate who qualified and most of the delegates have already endorsed her. Yet her official selection will mark a significant milestone, making her the nation’s first Black woman to become a major-party presidential nominee and capping one of the most tumultuous months in recent American political history.