All posts by Richard Pildes

The Independent State Legislature Doctrine

September 16, 2021, 12:17 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Hayward Smith has posted this detailed article on the independent state legislature doctrine, which also responds to arguments defending certain versions of the doctrine. Back in 2001, when Hayward was a student of mine at NYU, he published a law… Continue reading

NY Lost One Seat in Congress Due to Covid-Related Deaths

August 30, 2021, 7:27 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

That’s the conclusion of this new article by Bernie Grofman and Jonathan Cervas. From the abstract: It is well understood that even small differences in population can have a disproportionate impact on representation in the U.S. House of Representatives after… Continue reading

If Senators Had Two-Year Terms, How Would the Vote on the Infrastructure Bill Have Come Out?

August 12, 2021, 11:22 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In my recent NYT piece I noted how the unique and exceptionally short two-year term for members of the House, combined with the prospect of primary elections, dramatically shapes American politics. In that light, it’s noteworthy how differently Republican Senators… Continue reading

Could CO’s Redistricting Commission Create a More Competitive Map?

August 6, 2021, 9:06 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

I’ve been emphasizing the value of competitive districts in potentially making Congress less polarized and more effective. In earlier posts, I’ve explained how Dave’s Redistricting App (DRA) can be used to judge maps along a number of dimensions. I… Continue reading

The Significance of the Ninth Circuit’s Decision on Alaska’s Campaign Finance Laws

August 2, 2021, 10:39 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

I want to flag a couple significant aspects to the important 2-1 Ninth Circuit decision in Thompson v. Hebdon that Derek blogged about here. The Alaska laws at issue had been adopted in 2006 through a ballot measure that passed… Continue reading

“Big problems with small money? Republicans catch up to Democrats in online giving”

August 2, 2021, 10:09 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

From Alex Seitz-Wald and Ben Kamisar at NBC News: Republicans are beginning to catch up with Democrats in online fundraising, creating for the first time in modern history a political landscape where both parties are largely funded by… Continue reading

2021 Supplement to The Law of Democracy Now Available

August 2, 2021, 6:22 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

The 2021 Supplement is now available at this link at Foundation Press. A few things happened regarding the law of democracy over the past year, all of which are covered in the 2021 Supplement — including major new sections on… Continue reading

Competitive Districts Part II: Colorado’s Independent Redistricting Commission

July 26, 2021, 11:00 amredistricting, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

Now that I’ve described in Part I how DRA enables assessing a map’s competitiveness, along with other dimensions, I’ll lay out how DRA makes it possible to compare different maps. To do that, I’ll compare the preliminary map for the… Continue reading

Designing Competitive Redistricting Maps: Part I

July 26, 2021, 6:07 amredistricting, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

Colorado’s congressional districts are being drawn by an independent redistricting commission created in 2018 by “Amendment Y,” a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that voters approved. That amendment also specifies the criteria the commission is to use. After specifying that districts… Continue reading

As House Hearings Begin on the Risk of Electoral Subversion, Here’s One Major Issue to Address

July 25, 2021, 10:56 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

On Wednesday, the House will hold hearings to address the risk of electoral subversion. In light of that, I’m re-upping this NYT piece of mine, titled “There’s Still a Loaded Weapon Lying Around in Our Election System.” The piece identifies… Continue reading

How Voters Eventually Decided 4-Year Terms for Governors were Appropriate

July 22, 2021, 12:54 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Continuing the discussion of the two-year term for the House, Tyler Yeargain, Associate Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, sent me this graph he created. This shows, first, the strength of the original view that democracy… Continue reading

The Shift to Four-Year Terms for Governors

July 22, 2021, 8:53 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In response to the NYT piece I published today on the two-year term for the House, Rob Richie pointed out to me that governors had originally been enacted to short terms for many decades. Indeed, after WWII more than 20… Continue reading

“America Has Too Frequent Elections”

July 22, 2021, 5:30 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

My new piece in the NYT highlights how institutional design choices, which we come to take for granted as the background features of American democracy, dramatically shape the kind of politics and governance we end up with: The ability of… Continue reading

530 On the Importance of Competitive Elections

July 19, 2021, 9:50 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

By Geoffrey Skelley: Incumbent politicians have moved further toward the political extremes in recent elections partly because they are worried about a primary challenge. But studies suggest that the primary electorate itself isn’t any more ideologically extreme than the… Continue reading