I’m honored to be a participant in this new initiative of the National Constitution Center. As its name indicates, the “Restoring the Guardrails of Democracy” project aims to redress the erosion of democratic norms that has occurred recently in the… Continue reading

I’ve written this piece for Just Security. It discusses two features of the effort to have Samuel Tilden prevail in the disputed election of 1876, one from South Carolina and the other from Vermont, both of which lacked any… Continue reading

In a recent essay on the need to revise the Electoral Count Act (as well as in a recent New Yorker interview), I have emphasized the need to focus on the abuse of Article I legislative powers in connection with the… Continue reading

In a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal (June 22, 2022), John Eastman cites, among other scholarly works, two that I have written (including one coauthored piece) as support for his theory that Vice President Pence was entitled… Continue reading

I’m delighted to be writing a paper for this symposium, the announcement for which I’ve been asked to share with others who might be interested: University of New Hampshire Law Review  Fall 2022 Symposium Request for Submissions Deadline: July 29,… Continue reading

The National Institute for Civic Advocacy is hosting a program on bipartisan electoral reform, of which a revised Electoral Count Act is a key component. The program is tomorrow, Monday, June 27, at 10:30 ET, in Washington, DC, at the… Continue reading

In his opinion for the Court in the NY gun case, Justice Thomas says that means-ends inquiry will not be part of Second Amendment analysis. On page 15 of his opinion, he goes on to say that this… Continue reading

With all the talk about whether the evidence presented at the January 6 committee’s hearings provide a basis for prompting Merrick Garland to bring criminal charges against Trump, the public discussion of how best to protect the nation’s democracy from… Continue reading

Here’s the video of the panel discussion last Thursday, hosted by the Network for Responsible Public Policy and moderated by Pam Fessler, with Larry Jacobs, Kevin Johnson, and me. The conversation was broad, addressing not just vulnerabilities in election administration… Continue reading

AP previews the possible news this week that SCOTUS may grant review of the North Carolina case raising the so-called “independent state legislature” doctrine. As we wait, it’s worth remembering this: whatever one thinks of the doctrine itself, it cannot… Continue reading

The latest news from Arizona.

Max Fisher in the N.Y. Times discusses scholarship on how political elites handle constitutional crises over election outcomes in democracies. This research shows that presidential systems are more vulnerable to elite subversion of the electorate’s will than parliamentary systems, a… Continue reading

Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman report that “M. Evan Corcoran, a white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor brought on by Mr. Trump, was involved in drafting the document, according to two people briefed on the matter.”

The Hill has a story on the effort of three midwestern states–Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois–to be among the first in the revamped schedule for the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries in 2024. With the goal of putting an Electoral College swing… Continue reading