Steven Spielberg Made a Movie About the Wrong Amendment
“The adoption of the 15th Amendment … constitutes the most important event that has occurred, since the nation came into life.”
Ulysses S. Grant, as quoted in Ron Chernow’s new biography.
All posts by Richard Pildes
Political Geographers’ Amicus On Distinguishing Partisan Gerrymandering From Natural Geographic Clustering
I want to single out, in two posts, two amicus briefs in Whitford. I am co-counsel on the first, filed on behalf of a group of academic experts in political geography (see here).
I chose to represent these experts… Continue reading
On What States Does Partisan Control of the House Turn?
In a fascinating analysis in The Cook Political Report, Richard E. Cohen explores which areas of the country have essentially become locked-up by either the Democrats or the Republicans, and which areas remain fluid enough to provide the marginal forces… Continue reading
Rick Hills on the Racial Redistricting Cases
Rick Hills, a colleague, has a provocative essay at prawfsblawg, on the post-2010 racial redistricting cases, including Monday’s decision in the North Carolina case. Here is how he opens his analysis (his words, not mine):
Since at least the… Continue reading
Disagreeing With Rick Hasen on the North Carolina Case
I’ve now had a chance to read Rick Hasen’s assessment of the North Carolina case and I feel obligated to note my fundamental disagreement with the most dramatic parts of his post.
Rick says there are “two bombshells” in footnotes… Continue reading
Analysis of the Supreme Court’s North Carolina Racial Redistricting Case
[This post will soon also appear at the SCOTUS blog]
The main take-away from today’s decision is that the Supreme Court is continuing the project of winding down unnecessary racial redistricting. The decision reflects the Court’s effort to modernize the… Continue reading
What To Look for When the Supreme Court Decides the North Carolina Redistricting Case
The Court has already decided one major racial redistricting case this Term, Bethune-Hill, from Virginia. The other major racial redistricting case, Cooper v. Harris, from North Carolina, is now one of three cases outstanding the longest since argument. Cooper involves… Continue reading
Russian Efforts Regarding Claims of Voter Fraud
Reuters has broken this story, said to be based on confidential documents prepared by a Putin-controlled Russian think tank, on various strategies for interfering in our 2016 elections. Among all the other revelations, this particular tidbit stood out as one… Continue reading
The House Freedom Caucus is Effective Precisely Because it is Not Politically Fragmented
Two recent essays at the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, here and here, describe the various means through which the Freedom Caucus has turned itself into an effective, unified bloc within the Republican Party. Until I read these pieces, I… Continue reading
The WI Gerrymandering Case and the Costs of Mandatory Jurisdiction
The 2-1 federal court decision striking down Wisconsin’s redistricting plans for the state legislature as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, Whitford v. Gil, is without doubt the most significant lower federal court decision on partisan gerrymandering the lower courts have ever… Continue reading
The Voters Trump Persuaded
From Nate Cohn’s Upshot column, which now has the most detailed data analysis on the voting patterns in the 2016 election:
Instead, it’s clear that large numbers of white, working-class voters shifted from the Democrats to Mr. Trump. Over… Continue reading
Political Fragmentation and the Demise of the Health Care Act
Over at the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, I have a piece today that puts into a larger context the remarkable inability of the Republican Party to get the AHCA through the House. Here is the opening:
The failure of… Continue reading
NC Court Relies on “Unitary Executive Branch” Principle to Block Changes to State Board of Elections
In holding that the NC legislature’s post-election changes to the design of the State Board of Elections violates the NC Constitution, see here, the state courts held that the Governor must be able to have effective control over this… Continue reading
Today’s Important Decision in Bethune-Hill
As someone who litigates these cases and has written extensively about racial redistricting, I consider today’s decision a major new precedent with broad implications, not just for racial gerrymandering issues, but for partisan gerrymandering ones potentially as well. Because I… Continue reading