All posts by Rick Hasen

Wisconsin Supreme Court on 4-3 Ideological Vote Upholds Governor Evers’ Crazy Rewriting of State Law to Protect School Funding for 402 Years Instead of 2 Years

April 18, 2025, 7:33 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

You can find the majority decision, a concurrence, and the dissent at this link. It’s not every day I side with the conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but they are surely right here. As the majority explained: “As… Continue reading

“A Startling Admission From a G.O.P. Senator: ‘We Are All Afraid'”

April 18, 2025, 6:55 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: Senator Lisa Murkowski, the moderate Alaska Republican who has routinely broken with her party to criticize President Trump, has made a startling admission about the reality of serving in public office at a time when an unbound leader in… Continue reading

“Dual Orders From Judges Edge Courts Closer to Confrontation With White House”

April 18, 2025, 6:53 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: After the Trump administration rushed nearly 240 Central American immigrants onto charter planes last month and flew them — most without hearings — to a prison in El Salvador, the courts responded with a flurry of orders more or… Continue reading

Travis Crum Primary ELB Blogger Next Week

April 17, 2025, 8:15 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Please send your tips to Travis, and wish him luck on his first full week handling the blog as an ELB contributor.

“The Instant Runoff Voting Patchwork: Handling Voter Errors and Ballot Length”

April 17, 2025, 8:13 amalternative voting systemsRick Hasen

Tait Helgaas has written this student comment in the U. Pa. L. Rev. Here is the abstract: As states and cities across the United States adopt instant runoff voting (IRV) in their constitutions and charters, they enact statutes and… Continue reading

Justice Riggs in 4th Circuit Cites Justice Scalia in Bush v. Gore to Support Her Request for Stay of “Cure” Order in North Carolina Supreme Court Election Dispute

April 17, 2025, 6:49 amBush v. Gore reflectionsRick Hasen

From the 4th Circuit motion: Proceeding with the proposed cure process also poses a serious risk of irreparable harm directly to Justice Riggs by undermining the legitimacy of her election victory. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay in… Continue reading

North Carolina: “Elections Officials Narrow Jefferson Griffin’s Path to Victory”

April 17, 2025, 6:39 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

The Assembly: Days after Republicans on the state Supreme Court created a path for Jefferson Griffin to overturn his 2024 loss to incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs, the Democratic-controlled State Board of Elections significantly narrowed it. … On April 15, the… Continue reading

“State Department eliminates key office tasked with fighting foreign disinformation”

April 16, 2025, 6:02 pmcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

Politico: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the agency’s hub for fighting foreign disinformation campaigns — the final nail in a yearslong effort to shut down the office accused by GOP lawmakers of censoring conservative… Continue reading

“Elon Musk focuses donations on GOP lawmakers targeting judges”

April 16, 2025, 5:54 pmauthoritarian threats in US, campaign financeRick Hasen

WaPo: Elon Musk targeted a flurry of money in late March to support Republican members of Congress who endorsed legislation to impeach judges or restrict their power, new filings revealed, bolstering his own push to punish judges who rule against… Continue reading

“Former Trump Official Targeted With Government Probe Vows to Fight”

April 16, 2025, 1:30 pmauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

WSJ: A former top Trump administration official targeted with a federal investigation by President Trump said he would fight back against what he called an unprecedented campaign by the government to punish dissent. Chris Krebs, one of Trump’s top cybersecurity … Continue reading

“Newer Problems in an Old, Broken Campaign Finance Regime—A Post-2024 Reflection”

April 16, 2025, 12:08 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

John Martin has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, University of Pittsburgh Law Review). Here is the abstract: Money in politics is ever-increasing in the United States, and the ways in which it manifests is ever-changing. The 2024 election cycle… Continue reading

Justice Riggs (and Others) Go to Fourth Circuit in an Emergency Effort to Stay the Federal District Court Ruling Allowing Steps Toward What is Likely an Unconstitutional Attempt to Redo State Judicial Election

April 16, 2025, 7:40 amjudicial electionsRick Hasen

Riggs’ case is assigned number 25-1397 in the Fourth Circuit. There are three other requests for stays from other parties that will likely be consolidated. I wrote at Slate about the disaster of the district court’s order: In a preliminary … Continue reading

“A Top Democratic Official Plots to Take Down Party Incumbents”

April 16, 2025, 7:29 ampolitical partiesRick Hasen

NYT: Less than three months after the young political activist David Hogg was elected as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, he is undertaking a new project that is sure to rankle some fellow Democrats: spending millions of… Continue reading

Annals of Capitulation Dep’t: “Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them.”

April 16, 2025, 7:28 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: When some of the nation’s biggest law firms agreed to deals with President Trump, the terms appeared straightforward: In return for escaping the full force of his retribution campaign, the firms would do some free legal work on… Continue reading