The Commission’s report is one of the most effective and credible documents on meaningful voting reform issued in many years.  I attribute much of that effectiveness to the original decision of how to design the Commission itself.  It was not… Continue reading

Former White House Counsel Robert Bauer, distinguished scholar in residence and senior lecturer at NYU School of Law, and NYU Professor Sally Katzen, former deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, recently hosted in… Continue reading

In addition to North Carolina’s package of changes to its voting laws, the same state legislature has been sued for unconstitutionally using race to gerrymander its state election districts.  Though this racial gerrymandering issue has gotten less attention in the… Continue reading

The debate over whether the rise of increasingly safe seats for members of Congress contributes to political polarization remains ongoing.  Political scientists, through empirical studies, tend to conclude there is no significant contribution.  On the ground political actors often assert… Continue reading

The Supreme Court of India held last week that voters have a constitutional right in elections to vote “none of the above.”   The Court concluded that the right to reject candidates is the same as the right to vote for… Continue reading

So argues an important Wall Street Journal piece today based on California’s experience with its new, “Top-Two” primary system in the 2012 elections.  Laced with quotes from political insiders, including Republican members of California’s congressional delegation, the argument is that… Continue reading

For those of you who teach (as I do) the amazing one-vote, one-person case of Lucas v. The Forty-Fourth General Assembly of the State of Colorado, or for others wishing to understand urban v. rural conflicts in the design of… Continue reading

In a prior post picked up by Volokh, Instapundit, and others, I raised this question.  In light of further research, with much thanks to those who pointed me in the right directions, I now think the answer might very… Continue reading

A question lurking over many constitutional issues concerning election laws is how courts should address the “easiest,” core case of a law that can fairly be judged as purely partisan in purpose, without any legitimate public-regarding justification.  Unless courts know… Continue reading

Though this blog usually focuses only on U.S. issues, I wanted to flag a story in today’s Wall Street Journal that might provoke the interest of many readers (since the WSJ is behind a paywall, see here).  In Bangladesh,… Continue reading

How many books thank both Barack Obama and John Yoo?  I know of one — and it might well be the only one:  The Law of Democracy:  Legal Structure of the Political Process.  Back in the mid-1990s, when we were… Continue reading

As the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other litigants begin to turn to Section 3 to seek to put specific jurisdictions under judicial preclearance based on recent judicial findings of intentional discrimination, it’s important to note that Section 3’s text… Continue reading

I had not read in many years the discussion in Buckley upholding the aggregate contributions cap now at issue in the McCutcheon case.  Turns out the entire discussion in Buckley’s otherwise massive opinion is one paragraph long.  That makes it… Continue reading

One remarkable feature of the American Civil War is that in its midst we nonetheless held regularly scheduled elections.  And as is well-known, in the 1862 mid-term election, President Lincoln and the Republican Party suffered devastating losses in the U.S.… Continue reading