All posts by Rick Hasen

“Fresh off Texas Senate’s approval, new congressional map is target of lawsuits”

redistricting

Texas Tribune:

Hours after the Texas Senate approved a new congressional map early Saturday morning that more heavily favors Republicans — legislation Gov. Greg Abbott plans to “swiftly” sign into law — a lawsuit against the governor was filed, alleging that the redrawn districts are racially discriminatory.

The 67-page complaint against Abbott and Secretary of State Jane Nelson supplements legal action filed by LULAC in 2021 challenging the state’s original maps and argues that redrawing districts mid-decade is unconstitutional…

Lawyers’ Committee:

 Today, the Texas NAACP, represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in their ongoing lawsuit against the state of Texas, challenging its recently passed congressional maps for illegal, racial gerrymandering. The maps bulldoze important majority-minority districts and dilute the ability for Black and Brown communities to pick their political representation fairly. 

The Texas NAACP and Lawyers’ Committee originally filed the case in 2021 regarding Texas’ redistricting plan for Congress, as well as the state Senate and House, arguing that multiple districts at all levels—principally in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston areas—intentionally discriminate against people of color. 

In July of this year, the Department of Justice sent Texas Governor Greg Abbott a letter arguing that four Democratic districts—three of them coalition, or synonymously, majority-minority districts—were racially gerrymandered and that the Fifth Circuit had declared coalition districts unconstitutional. While this was a misstatement and blatant misinterpretation of the law, it still instructed Texas to redraw its maps, and Governor Abbott obliged by adding redistricting to the legislative agenda, claiming the state no longer needed coalition districts. 

Now, with the passage of the new maps, the Texas Legislature doubles down on its original gerrymander, seeking to dismantle majority Black and Brown communities and weaken their political power for the years to come, and critically, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

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“Justice Dept. Broadens Inquiry Into Key Players in Russia Investigation”

authoritarian threats in US, chicanery, Department of Justice

NYT:

Pursuing a theory promoted by Trump loyalists, the Justice Department is investigating whether F.B.I. officials during and after the Biden administration tried to hide or secretly destroy documents that might cast doubt on the earlier inquiry into Russia’s attempt to tilt the 2016 election in President Trump’s favor, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The steps taken by the Justice Department are the latest in a series of efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to impugn the Russia investigation, which the president sees as having been a partisan witch hunt that unfairly dogged him throughout his first term.

The new inquiry seeks to determine if senior F.B.I. officials spent years working to cover up the supposed misdeeds of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director at the time of the Russia investigation, and John O. Brennan, who was then the C.I.A. director, after the two men left government by squirreling away potentially damaging classified documents.

The disclosures bring into sharper focus how Kash Patel, now the F.B.I. director, is intent on substantiating longstanding claims Mr. Trump has peddled to his base that he was framed by the Obama administration. Under Mr. Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, the bureau has moved to oust employees they believe are disloyal or who have worked on investigations into Mr. Trump….

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“Silicon Valley Pledges $200 Million to New Pro-A.I. Super PACs”

campaign finance

NYT:

Silicon Valley corporations and investors, emboldened by President Trump’s embrace of the technology and crypto industries, have pledged up to $200 million to two new super PACs that are aimed at forcing out politicians whom they see as insufficiently supportive of the push into artificial intelligence.

One of the new PACs, Meta California, is funded by tens of millions of dollars from Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram and has been investing heavily in A.I. The second super PAC, Leading the Future, is backed initially with $50 million from the A.I. investor Andreessen Horowitz and $50 million from Greg Brockman, a co-founder of OpenAI, and his wife, Anna.

The first-of-their-kind groups reflect a new appetite for political combat from the A.I. industry, which is a relatively new policy area without clear partisan allegiances.

Meta, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and others are shoveling tens of billions of dollars into developing A.I. models, building data centers, hiring top researchers and taking a lead in the technology. At the same time, the companies face questions over whether A.I. might take away people’s jobs and whether the technology is safe, as well as mounting concerns over the environmental effects of data centers….

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“Trump privately pushed top state lawmakers to redistrict”

redistricting

WaPo:

President Donald Trump privately pushed Indiana’s top GOPlawmakers to redraw their state’s congressional maps this week, while outside allies lodged a pressure campaign, part of an increasingly urgent effort to help Republicans preserve their narrow majority in next year’s U.S. House elections.

Indiana’s Republican lawmakers remain divided. But Trump’s direct input appears to be making a difference, with at least one critic who attended meetings at the White House on Tuesday, which also included Vice President JD Vance, softening his position.

State Rep. Jim Lucas (R) told the Indianapolis Star that he was more open to redistricting after hearing from Vance, a sharp turn in rhetoric from just weeks ago, when he questioned on X whether it was worth “putting many good state elected officials at risk because of a political redistricting stunt!”

The Indiana debate shows how closely every seat is being fought. Republicans already hold seven of nine U.S. House seats and it’s possible new maps would yield them only a single new favorable district. But that couldmake a difference in a Congress where Republicans now hold a narrow advantage, 219-212, with four vacancies. A loss of GOP control would let Democrats thwart some of Trump’s agenda and investigate his administration…

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“A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers”

campaign finance, campaigns, chicanery

Wired:

In a private group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet.

But the contract sent to them from Chorus, the nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketing platform, came with some strings. Among other issues, it mandated extensive secrecy about disclosing their payments and had restrictions on what sort of political content the creators could produce.

In their group chat, influencers debated the details.

“Should we send a joint email (with all of our email addresses) … or, are we just going to send things separately and hope they change everything for everyone?” Laurenzo, a nonbinary creator in Columbus, Ohio, with over 884,000 TikTok followers, asked the group. Some joked about collective bargaining. “Any Newsies fans here?” Eliza Orlins, a public defender and reality TV star known for her appearances on Survivor, posted in the group. “‘We’re a union just by sayin’ so!’”

The influencers in the chat collectively had at least 13 million followers across social platforms. They represented some of the most well-known voices online posting in support of Democrats, and they’re key to wherever the party moves next. But ultimately, the group didn’t make much progress.

“Reading through this revised Chorus contract like: you win some, you lose some,” a reproductive justice influencer named Pari, who posts under the handle @womeninamerica, responded later in the thread. “I also think there’s at least 4 other things that should change 🤣but the vibe I got from their email was that there would be minimal, if any, changes.” (Laurenzo, Orlins, and Pari did not reply to requests for comment.)

“I don’t feel strongly about pushing tbh,” Aaron Parnas, a Gen Z news influencer who has been called the Gen Z Walter Cronkite and has been lauded in legacy media outlets, posted to the chat. “They aren’t going to modify it anymore. Seems like a take it or leave it.” (Parnas declined to comment.)

“I believe we are in Stage 5: Acceptance,” Pari responded. Creators began signing on to the deal….

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“What to Expect Next in the Trump Administration’s Strategy to Meddle with the Vote”

authoritarian threats in US, election administration

New Brennan Center report:

Last Monday, President Trump posted on social media that he would sign an executive order aimed at eliminating mail voting. It would be his second executive order on elections, following a March executive order that, among other things, sought to implement a show-your-papers rule requiring Americans to present a passport or similar document to register to vote. Since then, the White House has seemingly walked back its threat for a new elections executive order. But that doesn’t mean the president’s attempt to undermine upcoming elections is now over.

In fact, as the Brennan Center recently explained in The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election, there is a concerted White House effort to interfere in future elections. In our previous report, we laid out everything the administration has done thus far and explained how these actions can be seen as part of a bigger strategy. But what additional steps can we expect in the coming months, even without a new executive order?

If we dig into the details of the March order, we can see the drumbeat of actions that are likely to come: from the spread of misleading claims and reports by federal agencies, to the instigation of spurious investigations and prosecutions, to attempts to meddle with vote counting. Laying out this strategy gives state and local governments, pro-democracy civil society, and voters time to prepare and ensure that we have free and fair elections this November, in 2026, and in 2028….

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“Pa. election conspiracy activist appointed to election integrity role at Department of Homeland Security”

election subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squad

WITF:

A Pennsylvania-based activist tied to President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election is now overseeing election security matters for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

Heather Honey, of Lebanon County, is serving as the deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity, a political appointment in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, according to the department’s website. 

The office is responsible for leading, conducting and coordinating “Department-wide policy development and implementation and strategic planning,” according to its page. 

DHS did not answer questions about Honey’s responsibilities, or whether she will still be able to both work in government and hold positions in several advocacy groups that push conspiratorial election claims….

Votebeat had an earlier profile of Honey, This Pa. activist is the source of false and flawed election claims gaining traction across the country. MORE from Democracy Docket.

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“Judge rules Utah’s congressional map must be redrawn for the 2026 elections”

redistricting

AP:

The Utah Legislature will need to rapidly redraw the state’s congressional boundaries after a judge ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled body circumvented safeguards put in place by voters to ensure districts aren’t drawn to favor any party.

The current map, adopted in 2021, divides Salt Lake County — Utah’s population center and a Democratic stronghold — among the state’s four congressional districts, all of which have since elected Republicans by wide margins.

District Court Judge Dianna Gibson made few judgments on the content of the map but declared it unlawful because lawmakers had weakened and ignored an independent commission established by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

“The nature of the violation lies in the Legislature’s refusal to respect the people’s exercise of their constitutional lawmaking power and to honor the people’s right to reform their government,” Gibson said in the ruling.

New maps will need to be drawn quickly, before candidates start filing in early January for the 2026 midterm elections. The ruling gives lawmakers a deadline of Sept. 24 and allows voting rights groups involved in the legal challenge to submit alternate proposals to the court.

But appeals expected from Republican officials could help them run out the clock to possibly delay adopting new maps until 2028.

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“How AOC built a Democratic fundraising juggernaut”

campaign finance, campaigns

CNN:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is building a fundraising juggernaut that is rivaling some of the Democratic Party’s core infrastructure, prompting questions about both her future and the party’s.

Small-dollar donations – contributions of less than $200 – are the lifeblood of campaigns and a key measure of voter enthusiasm. And on ActBlue, Democrats’ largest online fundraising platform, the New York congresswoman received the third-most small-dollar donations in the first half of the year.

That trailed only the Democratic National Committee and the party’s Senate campaign arm, key party infrastructure. Ocasio-Cortez beat the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House campaign arm, and every other individual candidate.

Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $15 million total in the first half of 2025 from 736,000 contributions, an average of $20 a donor. Notably, her fundraising spiked after the March announcement that she would join Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour….

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Unanimous Third Circuit Panel Holds Unconstitutional Pennsylvania Requirement to Discard Timely Received Mail-in Ballots That Have Wrong or Missing Dates

election administration

It’s an interesting case that finds only a minimal burden under the Anderson-Burdick balancing test but still finds the state law unconstitutional. Here, the date requirement on timely received ballots was found to serve no government interest.

I expect the RNC will seek U.S. Supreme Court review.

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“In Private Deal, the D.N.C. Covered $20 Million in Harris Bills Post-Election”

campaign finance, campaigns

NYT:

Not long after Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election, her senior advisers and the Democratic National Committee struck a handshake deal.

Ms. Harris still had bills piling up, and campaign officials had counted on raising more money during a prolonged fight over tallying votes. Instead, the race was called early in the morning after Election Day.

The private agreement was this: The party would pick up the tab for any outstanding 2024 bills, allowing Ms. Harris to claim she did not end the race in debt. In turn, Ms. Harris would raise the money to cover all of those leftover costs, leaving the party whole financially as it sought to navigate the second Trump era.

Left in the dark were the small donors who received nearly 100 email solicitations sent from the Harris operation this year alone on behalf of the D.N.C. The emails did not disclose that funds raised from those emails were essentially earmarked for leftover bills. Convincing donors, both big and small, to pay for debts is typically a tough sell.

The arrangement was described by four people with knowledge of it and corroborated through Federal Election Commission disclosures. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Though the deal was struck before the current party chairman, Ken Martin, was elected in February, it has continued during his tenure.

The total tally in post-election bills that the D.N.C. has covered so far is $20.5 million, federal records show. While significant, that sum amounted to less than 2 percent of the $1.5 billion that the presidential campaign spent in 15 weeks….

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California: “Republicans again ask Supreme Court to stop Democratic redistricting”

direct democracy, redistricting

At the Lectern:

California Republicans today filed a second writ petition — Sanchez v. Weber — in the Supreme Court seeking to prevent the electorate from voting in November to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional districts.

The court denied the first petition last week, two days after it was filed, but before enactment of the legislation necessary to put the redistricting proposal on the ballot. The petition had asked for immediate action to stop the Legislature from acting. The court declined to stop the Legislature from voting, but seemed to leave open today’s second petition, apparently saying the first petition was premature.

Today’s petition asks the Supreme Court to keep off the November ballot ACA 8, the Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment for temporary redistricting. It requests a court decision — with or without a hearing — in two weeks, by September 8. I do not see in the petition why September 8 is a critical date. The only reference to that day on the California Secretary of State’s web page of key dates for the November special election is: “Translations of Ballot Label and Ballot Title and Summary Available for Public Display” “August 31–September 8, 2025.”

Today’s petition reprises the lone argument made in the first, that the Legislature acted too quickly on the redistricting bills, in violation of California Constitution article IV, section 8(a). But it also alleges ACA 8 violates other state constitutional provisions — the separate-vote requirement of article XVIII, section 1; and the Citizens Redistricting Commission provisions and the once-a-decade-redistricting limitations of article XXI. The petition doesn’t mention how these arguments might be affected by the ACA 8 provision that the changes it makes are “notwithstanding any other provision of [California’s] Constitution or existing law.”

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“How China Influences Elections in America’s Biggest City”

chicanery

NYT:

In New York City, social clubs backed by China undermined a congressional candidate who once challenged the regime on Chinese television.

They helped unseat a state senator for attending a banquet with the president of Taiwan.

And they condemned a City Council candidate on social media for supporting Hong Kong democracy.

In the past few years, these organizations have quietly foiled the careers of politicians who opposed China’s authoritarian government while backing others who supported policies of the country’s ruling Communist Party. The groups, many of them tax-exempt nonprofits, have allowed America’s most formidable adversary to influence elections in the country’s largest city, The New York Times found.

The groups are mostly “hometown associations” of people hailing from the same town or province in China. Some have been around for more than a century, while dozens of others have sprung up over the past decade. Like other heritage clubs in a city of immigrants, they welcome newcomers, organize parades and foster social connections.

But many hometown associations have become useful tools of China’s consulate in Midtown Manhattan, according to dozens of group members, politicians and former prosecutors. Some group leaders have family or business in China and fear the consequences of bucking its authority. Consulate officials have enlisted them to intimidate politicians who support Taiwan or cross Beijing’s other red lines. In one case, a Chinese intelligence agent and several hometown leaders targeted the same candidate.

This meddling may seem modest, involving politicians who are unlikely to affect international policy. But China is determined to quash dissent in its diaspora before it spreads back home, said Audrye Wong, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies Chinese influence.

Beijing is also making a longer bet, she said: “You never know which politician might eventually run for Congress at the national level, or become a presidential candidate.”…

China’s influence machine is one of the world’s most expansive and effective. Over decades, it has harassed exiles in France, bribed academics in Britain and targeted politicians in Canada. It has even built clandestine police stations in dozens of countries to threaten dissidents. Its efforts have been especially potent in New York City, home to 600,000 ethnic Chinese people.

In 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested leaders of one group, the America Changle Association, for operating a police station in its clubhouse. Last year, a federal indictment accused a former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul of conspiring with the heads of two Chinese associations, saying their political activities “were supervised, directed, and controlled” by Chinese officials. And this summer, F.B.I. agents interviewed group leaders in Chinatown about consulate pressure, two leaders said….

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“Plutocratic Democracy, Elon Musk, and the Limits of Campaign Finance Reform”

campaign finance, Plutocrats United

Guy Charles and Frances Peale have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming in  Campaign Finance and the First Amendment, Lee C. Bollinger & Geoffrey R. Stone, Eds., 2025). Here is the abstract:

Politicians appear to be increasingly dependent upon a group of ultra-wealthy elites who not only fund their campaigns but are critical for the functioning of public governance. These ultrawealthy individuals provide the indispensable infrastructure, expertise, and communication that are critical to modern electoral politics. These ultra-wealthy individuals want more than influence, seeking instead to govern even though the voters do not elect them. This chapter describes this process and argues that the campaign finance literature, which is mired in a debate about corruption and equality, is not well-positioned to address this contemporary challenge to representative democracy. The piece refers to this challenge as “plutocratic democracy,” and uses Elon Musk as a case study.

This is an important piece, and is very much in line with my own draft, Faux Campaign Finance Regulation and the Pathway to American Oligarchy (conference paper dated Apr. 24, 2025, draft available, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5229707).

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