I have posted this short new essay on SSRN titled The Constitutional Emergency Powers of Federal Courts. Here’s the abstract: Discussions about whether governments in constitutional democracies possess emergency powers during exigent times focus exclusively on the political branches.  But… Continue reading

As Rick notes, a cert. petition has been filed asking the Supreme Court to hold unconstitutional Texas’ law that permits all those — and only those — 65 and older to vote absentee for any reason. That petition implicates in… Continue reading

For those of us interested in how American government functions under conditions of extreme polarization, there is a passage worth noting inside the speech Sen. Hawley gave on the Senate floor yesterday (the speech is a lament on behalf of… Continue reading

This Friday, June 12th, I’ll be participating on this panel on COVID-19 and the 2020 Elections at the National Federalist Society Convention. The Federalist Society does a good job of ensuring ideological diversity on these panels. The entire conference is… Continue reading

On Tuesday, Yale Law School is putting on this conference on the internet and the First Amendment. Nate Persily and I are participating in sessions on election issues and online platforms. For access to the Zoom conference, for which you… Continue reading

This piece of mine is coming out soon in the University of Chicago Law Review Online. Here’s the abstract: This fall, most states are likely to see a massive surge in absentee voting. The significantly greater burdens absentee ballots impose… Continue reading

This quote from Senator John Thune, #2 in the Senate Republican leadership, pretty much distills into a sentence the thesis of my work on why the shared electoral fate of same-party members in the White House, Senate, and House —… Continue reading

This is a change I have advocating for all states for the fall election. Of particular importance in Michigan and North Carolina, which I believe still have not made this change. From the story: The board voted unanimously to pass… Continue reading

With the coronavirus and candidates both in their 70s, I have been getting many questions about what happens if, unfortunately, a presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated at various points between now and Inauguration Day. The Washington Post today has… Continue reading

At the Supreme Court oral argument yesterday in the “faithless electors” cases, Justice Kavanaugh creatively invoked what he called “the avoid-chaos principle of judging,” by which he meant that “if it’s a close call or a tiebreaker” . . . … Continue reading

From today’s Washington Post: South Korea’s April 15 elections resulted in no new coronavirus infections, authorities announced. Following the two-week incubation period, no new cases could be traced to the 29 million people lining up to cast ballots.

For those looking for a break from virus-related election issues, Michael Parsons and I have posted on SSRN this article, titled The Legality of Ranked-Choice Voting. The reason for the question we address is explained in this abstract for… Continue reading

At Verdict, Dean Vik Amar and Professor Jason Mazzone have a piece which focuses not on what the right federal-court remedy in the Wisconsin litigation was, but whether there was any substantive federal constitutional violation in the first place. This… Continue reading

From this story, which begins this way: Cancellation of citizenship oath ceremonies and in-person interviews because of coronavirus means hundreds of thousands of people may not naturalize in time for November’s elections. If ceremonies and interviews remain shut down… Continue reading