All posts by Richard Pildes

“The Law of Democracy:” 2018 Supplement

August 26, 2018, 12:31 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In case any of you getting ready for teaching missed the Foundation Press notice that was distributed to all election-law academics a while back, the 2018 Supplement can be found here for our casebook, The Law of Democracy (Issacharoff, Karlan,… Continue reading

“Nations on All Continents are Spending Millions of Dollars Through Various Channels to Shape US Policies”

August 17, 2018, 1:05 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

That’s the sub-headline on this piece at US News & World Report, which analyzes a database that Open Secrets.org has put together on money that foreign governments and their agents spend on lobbying in the US. These figures involve money… Continue reading

How Should Courts Evaluate Recent Changes to Voting Laws

July 9, 2018, 8:51 amvotingRichard Pildes

An increasingly central and recurring issue in voting-rights litigation today is how courts should evaluate recent changes to various laws regulating the voting system. How much should the prior status quo matter in this assessment? This can present paradoxes for… Continue reading

Is Partisan Gerrymandering a Larger Symbol For Loss of Trust in the Political Process?

July 2, 2018, 7:14 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

An opinion essay in today’s WSJ, titled If Faith in Democracy Ebbs, Danger Rises, by Gerald F. Seib, generally discusses the loss of trust across the political spectrum in the political process. The piece includes these chilling lines, based on… Continue reading

Provocative Comments from Bruce Cain on the Efficiency Gap, Post-Gill

June 28, 2018, 1:58 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

There’s a lengthy interview on the partisan gerrymandering cases with Professor Bruce Cain, in Pacific Standard. This part in particular jumped out at me: Why was the efficiency gap promoted by the plaintiffs in Gill, and in the press… Continue reading

Viewpoints on Justice Kennedy’s Career

June 28, 2018, 8:51 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Politico MagazIne has assessments of Justice Kennedy from “17 legal thinkers” at this link. Here is an excerpt from mine: The realization of human dignity and the importance of value pluralism are the themes that run most deeply to me… Continue reading

“The elections clause as a structural constraint on partisan gerrymandering of Congress”

June 20, 2018, 11:38 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

That’s the title for the piece I was asked to contribute to the SCOTUSblog Symposium on the partisan gerrymandering cases. Here is the piece, and here is an excerpt: There is yet another constitutional provision, not at issue in Gill,… Continue reading

“Will the Court Ever Address Partisan Gerrymandering?”

June 18, 2018, 5:28 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

My New York Times op-ed on today’s redistricting decisions is now available here (as most readers know, the NYT chooses its own title for these). Here are a couple excerpts: Among major democracies, only in the United States are self-interested… Continue reading

Update on Ranked-Choice Voting and the SF Mayoral Race

June 14, 2018, 1:35 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Looks like London Breed, the candidate who ranked first on a plurality of ballots in the first round of SF’s ranked-choice election, is the new mayor of SF. This despite earlier reports that suggested the candidate who initially ranked second,… Continue reading

Ohio’s Voter Purge Law Has Been in Place for 24 Years

June 12, 2018, 2:46 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Surprised to learn that? I know I was. I discovered that from Justin Levitt’s blog post, here, which says: This is not a new piece of voter suppression devised by current elections officials: Ohio put the process in place… Continue reading

Ranked-Choice Voting and the Still Ongoing SF Contest for Mayor

June 7, 2018, 10:54 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is getting a test on bigger stages these days, with the Mayor’s race in San Francisco and the upcoming statewide primaries in Maine now making use of it. SF used RCV on Tuesday in the race for… Continue reading

What Does the Handwriting on the Wall in Gill v. Whitford Say?

May 21, 2018, 9:26 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Now that Justice Gorsuch has issued a majority opinion from the Court’s October sitting, it is most likely that Chief Justice Roberts is writing the opinion for the Court in Gill (unless the Court decides to hold the case over… Continue reading

The Brazenness of Partisan Intent in the Court’s Gerrymandering Cases

May 15, 2018, 9:44 amredistricting, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

A significant feature in these cases is the sheer brazenness with which critical legislators in the redistricting process across various states have been willing to blatantly proclaim their aggressive partisan objectives. In the previous major cases before the Court, from… Continue reading

The Oddity of the Oral Argument in the Texas Redistricting Cases

April 30, 2018, 3:14 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

As Adam Liptak and others have reported, much of the questioning at oral argument in this important case focused on whether it was premature for the Supreme Court to be hearing the case now. More specifically, it was the “liberal… Continue reading