All posts by Rick Hasen

“Former DOJ attorney acted under Trump’s direction, his lawyer says”

September 19, 2023, 7:46 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

WaPo: As a Justice Department lawyer after the 2020 election, Jeffrey Clark drafted a letter to top Georgia officials declaring that the agency had reason to doubt the legitimacy of the state’s election only after he was pressed to do… Continue reading

Automatic Voter Registration to PA?

September 19, 2023, 7:39 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Greg Sargent WaPo column: Democrats won a whole lot of elections in 2022, in no small part on their vow to strengthen and defend democracy. But if they hope to turn the issue into a sustained political winner, they have… Continue reading

“Alabama Secretary of State unveils new voter roll management system after ERIC withdrawal”

September 19, 2023, 7:37 amvoter registrationRick Hasen

News from the States: Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen Monday said the state would launch its own database of registered voters after withdrawing from a national one earlier this year. Allen unveiled the Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID) to… Continue reading

Must Read Yoel Roth NYT Oped on Threats and Intimidation of Those Who Kept the 2020 Elections Safe

September 18, 2023, 1:45 pmacademic freedom, election subversion riskRick Hasen

This is truly must-read: When I worked at Twitter, I led the team that placed a fact-checking label on one of Donald Trump’s tweets for the first time. Following the violence of Jan. 6, I helped make the call to… Continue reading

Free SDP Event/Webinar September 26: “How Should Platforms Handle Election Speech and Disinformation in 2024?”

September 18, 2023, 8:14 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

How Should Platforms Handle Election Speech and Disinformation in 2024?Tuesday, September 26, 12:15pm – 1:15pmKatie Harbath (Anchor Change), Josh Lawson (Advisor to the Aspen Institute on A.I. and democracy-related risk, formerly of Meta) Yoel Roth (formerly of Twitter), and Brandon… Continue reading

“Politics as Markets” after 25 Years: Lowering Expectations about the Role of the Courts in U.S. Democracy

September 18, 2023, 7:50 amPoliticsMarkets25, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

It’s hard to overstate the importance to the legal academy of Sam Issacharoff and Rick Pildes’s article from 1998, Politics as Markets. Their shift of the focus of election law from rights and interests to the structure and function… Continue reading

“An About-Face on Whether the 14th Amendment Bars Trump From Office”

September 18, 2023, 7:49 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Adam Liptak NYT column: A little more than a month ago, a law professor who helped found the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, enthusiastically endorsed a new law review article arguing that Donald J. Trump was ineligible to be… Continue reading

“Mark Meadows’s Testimony in Georgia Case May Have Done Him No Favors”

September 18, 2023, 7:45 amchicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: At issue was whether his actions — as described in the indictment of Mr. Trump, Mr. Meadows and 17 others in Fulton County, Ga., last month — could be considered within the scope of his duties as White House… Continue reading

“Guns and Voting”

September 18, 2023, 7:40 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

New report from the Brennan Center and Giffords Law Center [corrected]: “To ensure that elections remain peaceful, states must ban guns at places where votes are cast and counted and enact stronger anti-intimidation laws.”

“Moore and Partisan Gerrymandering”

September 18, 2023, 7:38 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Manoj Mate has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article examines the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moore v. Harper on state partisan gerrymandering. Moore rejected the independent state legislature theory in affirming… Continue reading

“Jan. 6 defendants bring cases to Supreme Court. Here’s what it could mean for Donald Trump”

September 17, 2023, 7:25 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

John Fritze for USA Today: Three men involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are asking the Supreme Court to wipe out part of their indictment − and the possibility of an extra 20 years in prison… Continue reading

“The FEC, Still Failing to Enforce Campaign Laws, Heads to Capitol Hill”

September 17, 2023, 7:22 pmcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

The latest from the Brennan Center: Ultimately, any system of rules is only as good as the body that enforces them. Most Americans want strong campaign finance rules, which require an FEC committed to enforcing duly enacted laws in a… Continue reading

“A member of the secret panel studying Wisconsin Supreme Court justice’s impeachment backed her rival”

September 15, 2023, 4:01 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

AP: One of the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices tapped to investigate impeaching newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz for taking Democratic Party money accepted donations from the state Republican Party when he was on the court. The former justice, Republican… Continue reading