All posts by Rick Hasen

Eugene Mazo: “Remembering Morris Kramer”

December 31, 2023, 9:30 amelection law bizRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Eugene Mazo: Morris H. Kramer, the plaintiff in Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15, 395 U.S. 621 (1969), passed away on September 11, 2023. I got to know Kramer toward… Continue reading

Watch Video of My Appearance with Geoff Bennett on PBS New Hour Discussing Potential Trump Disqualification in Maine and Likely SCOTUS Review

December 29, 2023, 4:37 pmballot accessRick Hasen

You can watch here. Shorter excerpt: Maine’s top election official ruled last night that Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot in 2024, citing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.@GeoffRBennett talks… Continue reading

“New 2023 Population Estimates Show Further Changes In Congressional Apportionment”

December 29, 2023, 8:53 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

New analysis from Election Data Services: With just three years since the Census Bureau released the final 2020 Census results, the Bureau’s new population estimates that were released earlier this week (December 19. 2023) would have changed congressional apportionment in… Continue reading

Thank You to the ELB Contributors and to Our Readers, and a Look to 2024

December 29, 2023, 4:47 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

As I’ve been traveling internationally over the last few weeks, I’ve had ELB contributors Derek Muller and Spencer Overton doing the major daily work that it takes to produce ELB. This should ordinarily be a sleepy time for election law… Continue reading

My 2023 Opeds and Commentaries (and Moving 2022 Commentaries to the Archives)

December 29, 2023, 4:36 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Here are the 2023 commentaries, in reverse chronological order: Terrifying Reports About Trump’s Plans for a Second Term Have One Bright Spot, Slate, November 7, 2023 The Supreme Court Needs to Make a Call on Trump’s Eligibility, The Atlantic, September… Continue reading

Maine Secretary of State, Piggybacking on the Reasoning of the Recent Colorado Supreme Court Decision, Finds Trump Disqualified and Orders Him Off Primary Ballot (But Decision Stayed for Judicial Review)–Makes SCOTUS Review of Issue More Likely

December 28, 2023, 4:12 pmballot access, election subversion riskRick Hasen

You can find the 34-page decision of the Maine Secretary of State at this link. Much of the reasoning of this decision tracks the analysis of the Colorado Supreme Court in Anderson. As Derek has suggested, the Colorado decision… Continue reading

Breaking: Federal District Court Holds that Georgia’s New Congressional Redistricting Plan Complies with Remedial Order in Voting Rights Case, Rejecting Plaintiffs’ Objections

December 28, 2023, 9:54 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the opinion here. The court in a footnote leaves open the possibility that plaintiffs in a new case could make an argument that the failure to create a coalition district under the Legislature’s new plan in… Continue reading

West Virginia Secretary of State and Gubernatorial Candidate Mac Warner Says 2020 Election was “Stolen” Because of . . . Hunter Biden Laptop and Discredited Version of Independent State Legislature Theory

December 28, 2023, 6:22 amfraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

See this:

Final Version of My Paper, “Nonprofit Law as the Tool to Kill What Remains of Campaign Finance Law: Reluctant Lessons from Ellen Aprill,” Now Available

December 28, 2023, 6:14 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

You can read it here, and the citation is 56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1233 (2023). Abstract: This brief Essay was prepared for a festschrift honoring the work of Professor Ellen Aprill. I explain in the Essay how Professor… Continue reading

“A New, and Old, Approach to Constitutional Conventions”

December 28, 2023, 6:11 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

David Pozen: One of the most significant disagreements on Balkinization seems to have reached an impasse. For almost two decades now, Sandy Levinson has been advocating a constitutional convention as a means to reconsider and revamp the Constitution’s most pernicious structural… Continue reading

Colorado Republican Party Files Cert Petition in Case Involving Trump’s Disqualification from the Colorado Primary Ballot

December 28, 2023, 5:12 amballot access, election subversion riskRick Hasen

You can find it here (no docket number yet, via Marty Lederman). Trump is expected to file a separate cert. petition, raising somewhat different issues.

Will the U.S.Supreme Court Keep Donald Trump Off the Ballot ? Some Initial Thoughts

December 19, 2023, 5:40 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

I am traveling and so I offer only some brief and initial thoughts here about what the United States Supreme Court may and should do in light of the Colorado Supreme Court’s determination that Donald Trump is ineligible to serve… Continue reading

“Talk of a Trump Dictatorship Charges the American Political Debate”

December 9, 2023, 4:31 pmauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Peter Baker for the NYT: When a historian wrote an essay the other day warning that the election of former President Donald J. Trump next year could lead to dictatorship, one of Mr. Trump’s allies quickly responded by calling for… Continue reading

“Small segment of voters will wield outsize power in 2024 presidential race”

December 8, 2023, 3:04 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

WaPo article, with the subhed: “The electoral college system empowers a sliver of the U.S. population in a diminishing number of battleground states. And the majority may not even prevail.”