All posts by Rick Hasen

“The Trump Administration Is Going After Our Elections Too”

February 18, 2025, 3:05 pmvoting technologyRick Hasen

Larry Norden and Derek Tisler at Slate: In its crusade against federal agencies, the Trump administration is targeting our election system, making potentially dangerous reductions to protections that help keep elections free, fair, and secure. On Friday, the acting director… Continue reading

Wisconsin: “Crawford, Schimel won’t pledge to recuse from cases involving political parties”

February 18, 2025, 7:08 amjudicial elections, political partiesRick Hasen

Wisconsin Public Radio: With Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election on track to be the most expensive judiciary election in history, neither candidate has pledged to recuse themselves from hearing cases involving the political parties backing their races. In an interview with… Continue reading

“NC elections officials seek to fast-track state Supreme Court race battle”

February 18, 2025, 6:46 amfraudulent fraud squad, judicial electionsRick Hasen

WRAL: The North Carolina Board of Elections asked the state Supreme Court to use its power to bypass the state Court of Appeals and take up Republican Jefferson Griffin’s election challenge — a case that could determine whether Griffin wins… Continue reading

“Trump Suggests No Laws Are Broken if He’s ‘Saving His Country'”

February 17, 2025, 7:20 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: President Trump on Saturday posted on social media a single sentence that appears to encapsulate his attitude as he tests the nation’s legal and constitutional boundaries in the process of upending the federal government and punishing his perceived enemies.… Continue reading

“Venting at Democrats and Fearing Trump, Liberal Donors Pull Back Cash”

February 17, 2025, 7:18 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

NYT: The demoralization and fear gripping blue America in the early weeks of President Trump’s administration have left liberal groups and their allies struggling for cash, hurting their ability to effectively combat the right-wing transformation of the federal government. The… Continue reading

Elon Musk Says “60 Minutes” Journalists “Deserve a Long Prison Sentence” after Airing Critical Report; Where are the Free Speech Organizations on the Right Condemning this Intimidation of Journalists by Government Official?

February 17, 2025, 7:13 amchicanery, First Amendment theoryRick Hasen

Despicable:

“Morning Digest: A Georgia Republican says he alone can raise unlimited sums. His rivals have other ideas”

February 17, 2025, 7:02 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

The Downballot: Lt. Gov. Burt Jones hasn’t yet announced his long-anticipated campaign for governor of Georgia, but he’s already taking advantage of a state law allowing him to raise unlimited sums of money—something none of his would-be rivals can… Continue reading

“Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work”

February 15, 2025, 2:40 pmchicanery, voting technologyRick Hasen

Eric Geller for Wired: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen all of its election security work and is reviewing everything it has done to help state and local officials secure their elections for the past eight years, WIRED… Continue reading

“Government Workers Cannot Be Fired for Their Political Views”

February 15, 2025, 2:35 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

John Langford and Erica Newland in The Atlantic: Political-patronage systems promote corruption at the expense of effective governance, and Americans grew dissatisfied with the cronyism and moblike rule that flowed from the spoils system. Following decades of effort to enact… Continue reading

“Musk-linked group offered $5m for proof of voter fraud – and came up with nothing”

February 14, 2025, 10:54 amfraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Brendan Fischer and Emma Steiner in The Guardian: In May 2024, a flashy ad went viral on social media warning that “across the country, there are real cases of fraud and abuses of the [election] system that have eroded our… Continue reading

“A Supreme Court Race May Shuffle the Rules of Wisconsin’s Democracy, Again”

February 14, 2025, 8:54 amjudicial electionsRick Hasen

Bolts: But voting rights advocates are closely watching the election as well. A host of issues related to voter access—the use of drop boxes, accommodations for disabled voters, and voter ID rules, to name a few—may also ride on this… Continue reading

“How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza”

February 14, 2025, 6:17 amchicanery, conflict of interest lawsRick Hasen

WSJ: When Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos dined with Donald Trump and his wife Melania at Mar-a-Lago in December, there was a lot at stake for both men: Bezos, a titan of industry whose company is crucial to the U.S. economy,… Continue reading

“Order to Drop Adams Case Prompts Resignations in New York and Washington”

February 13, 2025, 2:10 pmchicanery, Department of JusticeRick Hasen

NYT: Manhattan’s U.S. attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey an order from a top Justice Department official to drop the corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams. Then, when Justice Department officials sought to transfer the… Continue reading

“Elections, Courts, and Democratic Crisis: Constitutional Structure and the 2020 Election Cases”

February 13, 2025, 1:08 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Manoj Mate has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, University of Chicago Legal Forum). Here is the abstract: This essay analyzes how the U.S. constitutional order responds to democratic crisis, by examining how the Supreme Court adjudicated cases related to… Continue reading