NYT: President Trump’s order to his secretary of state to declassify thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails, along with his insistence that his attorney general issue indictments against Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., takes his presidency into new territory … Continue reading
Rick Hasen
Newsday reports. … Continue reading
OC Register: In a photo posted to social media last week, a young man wearing a mask with Orange County congressional candidate Michelle Steel’s name on it is holding a mail ballot and giving a thumbs up next to a … Continue reading
ABC News reports. (The title of the article is a quote from this response of mine in the BU symposium on Election Meltdown). … Continue reading
147-page district court opinion that begins with a quote from “Groundhog Day” and ends with this: Plaintiffs’ challenge to the State of Georgia’s new ballot marking device QR barcode-based computer voting system and its scanner and associated software presents serious … Continue reading
From this ABC report: If Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed and seated by Nov. 3 or shortly after, she could participate in decisions about any election-related petitions. This week, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Barrett “made no commitment to … Continue reading
WaPo: Both parties are increasingly focused on the pivotal — and potentially messy — role that Pennsylvania could play in deciding the outcome of the presidential race.President Trump’s campaign in recent days has redirected ad spending there from other northern battlegrounds, … Continue reading
WaPo: Amy Coney Barrett was just three years out of law school, a 28-year-old associate at a boutique Washington law firm, when she was dispatched to Florida to help George W. Bush’s legal team rescue thousands of Republican absentee ballots.The … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
Following up on this district court order, the first words from the Fifth Circuit: … Continue reading
AP: It’s a question Americans are unaccustomed to considering in a presidential election campaign: Could voting, vote-counting or the post-vote reaction become so chaotic that the U.S. military would intervene?The answer is yes, but only in an extreme case. There … Continue reading
Justin Levitt on MSNBC. … Continue reading
Balz at WaPo: Republican officials have rhetorically brushed aside President Trump’s refusal to say he will accept the results of the election. They note that presidencies have changed hands peacefully since the start of the republic. Meanwhile, they are engaged in … Continue reading
NYT: In Madison, Wis., thousands of people have gone to parks to deliver their ballots during Saturday voting festivals. In Milwaukee, Facebook feeds are inundated with selfies of Democrats inserting ballots into drop boxes. And along the shores of Lake Superior, voters in … Continue reading
This is a terrific new paper from Michael Morley (forthcoming, George Mason Law Review), though there are aspects I disagree with. Here is the abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court cautioned in Bush v. Gore that its “consideration is limited to … Continue reading
You can find the order and dissent here (via cleveland.com). … Continue reading
138-page opinion. It was pretty clear that’s where this one was heading, and I have serious doubts that the Trump campaign is going to do better if they try to appeal this up the appellate ladder. As I explained in … Continue reading
Statesman: A federal judge issued an order Friday night barring enforcement of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Oct. 1 proclamation that limited counties to one mail-in ballot drop-off location.U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said Abbott’s order placed an unacceptable burden on the voting … Continue reading
AP reports. (Earlier coverage.) … Continue reading
NYT: When President Trump used the prime-time debate last week to urge his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully,” he wasn’t just issuing a call for a grass-roots movement or raising the prospect of intimidation tactics … Continue reading
News: In other, possibly bigger election legal news today, it appears a federal judge in Kansas City has ruled that elections authorities must accept mail-in ballots that are dropped off in person. pic.twitter.com/Ht7gu7deJJ— Rachel Lippmann (@rlippmann) October 9, 2020 Court … Continue reading
AP: A federal judge ruled Friday that the election for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District should proceed in November as originally scheduled, despite the recent death of a third-party candidate.Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig asked the judge to require that the election … Continue reading
Politico: For at least seven years,GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn appears to have enjoyed rent-free use of a campaign office supplied by a political donor — which would be a clear violation of federal election law that comes amid mounting scrutiny … Continue reading
Politico: Nearly 50,000 voters received incorrect absentee ballots in the county that is home to Ohio’s capital, elections officials said Friday as they promised corrected ballots would be mailed within 72 hours.With about 240,000 ballots mailed, that meant one in … Continue reading
NYU Law Magazine on the writings of Issacharoff and Pildes. … Continue reading
I commented on this story (beginning around the 2:55 minute mark) for KQED California report. … Continue reading
WaPo: A private security company is recruiting a “large contingent” of former U.S. military Special Operations personnel to guard polling sites in Minnesota on Election Day as part of an effort “to make sure that the Antifas don’t try to … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: A Philadelphia judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s campaign does not have the right for poll watchers to observe activities inside the city’s new satellite election offices.The campaign sued the city last week, arguing its representatives should be permitted inside … Continue reading
NYT: Twitter, risking the ire of its best-known user, President Trump, said on Friday that it would turn off several of its routine features in an attempt to control the spread of misinformation in the final weeks before the presidential … Continue reading
The Hill: The nation’s top intelligence official briefed lawmakers last month that foreign influence campaigns targeting Congress were more expansive than previously known, but a lack of specifics has left some with questions, multiple sources tell The Hill.Director of National … Continue reading
NYT: Donald J. Trump needed money.His “self-funded” presidential campaign was short on funds, and he was struggling to win over leery Republican donors. His golf courses and the hotel he would soon open in the Old Post Office in Washington … Continue reading
Watch: https://twitter.com/Davis_Hammet/status/1314566887230054402 … Continue reading
Amazing: Here's the RNC chair (positive for COVID) cheering appeals court victories by Republicans rolling back lower court have orders to make voting safer and easier for voters during the pandemic. https://t.co/U4uzuA3WsK— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) October 9, 2020 Follow up: … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
I’m going to have a lot more to say about this after the election: On Thursday, in a conference call with a group of lobbyists, Mr. McConnell vented that the party’s Senate candidates are being financially overwhelmed because of small-dollar … Continue reading
The latest attempt. … Continue reading
Nate Persily and Charles Stewart at The Monkey Cage: Americans are worried about this election. And who can blame them? Each day, a new story, whether true, false or overblown, creates fresh anxiety about mail-in voting or polling places.A battleground-state survey conducted … Continue reading
Syracuse.com: Steve Williams agreed to be only a temporary placeholder on the Working Families Party line until Democrats chose a candidate – ultimately Balter – in the June 23 primary election.But now he’s stuck on the ballot, even though he’s … Continue reading
The court found that the burden on the state in keeping the system going outweighed the risk of disenfranchisement. The court’s order concludes: The state could have extended the registration deadline until midnight on October 6th, which would have given … Continue reading
Cleveland.com: LaRose, a Republican, appealed within hours of the ruling. Polster declined to put a stay on his order, meaning it will take effect immediately unless the appeals court intervenes. If it stands, the ruling would allow Cuyahoga County to … Continue reading
States Newsroom reports. … Continue reading
NYT: The details of the accusations against Mr. Broidy are especially striking: They include a promised $75 million success fee from Mr. Low and discussions about arranging for Malaysia’s prime minister to play golf with Mr. Trump. But they follow a pattern … Continue reading
WaPo: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) plan to introduce legislation Friday that would create a commission to “help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership” in the presidency.The panel would be called the Commission on Presidential … Continue reading
Philip Bump: Should that happen, Vice President Pence may be put in a position where he needs to decide between standing with his boss or standing with the will of the country. Asked about such a scenario at the vice-presidential … Continue reading
NYT: Mr. Trump has not been seen in person since returning from the hospital on Monday, but he sought to reassert himself on the public stage with a pair of telephone interviews with Fox News and Fox Business, a video … Continue reading
Anthony Fowler for Foreign Affairs. … Continue reading
WaPo deep dive: Even as a coronavirus outbreak has upended the White House, Democrats and Republicans have been gaming out another potential crisis that experts agree could plunge the country into unprecedented turmoil — a contested election in the weeks … Continue reading
You can find the opinion at this link. Given the South Carolina ruling from the Supreme Court this week, and the reaction from the 7th Circuit in the Wisconsin case, it could well be that the 6th Circuit reverses this … Continue reading
Pema Levy for Mother Jones. … Continue reading
New Idaho Law Review article by Rick LaRue. Abstract: Our nation’s constitutionally prescribed governing structure has original problems (the Electoral College) and those that have developed over time (excessively long congressional tenures and, for the presidency, biased reelection timing and … Continue reading