NYT: Early in his presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump dismissed political data as an “overrated” tool. But after he won the Republican nomination, his team began building a database that offers a pipeline into the heart of the party’s base, … Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
WaPo: This is evidently what an unnamed Georgia Tech student had in mind Saturday when he approached Perdue and began asking about Kemp, while recording video on his cellphone. “Hey, so, uh, how can you endorse a candidate — ” … Continue reading
WaPo: Nine months after President Trump was forced to dissolve a panel charged with investigating voter fraud, GOP officials across the country are cracking down on what they describe as threats to voting integrity — moves that critics see as … Continue reading
At the Lawfare blog, Jessica Marsden has a report on the recent decision of the federal district court in Georgia concerning whether insufficiently secure voting machines, which are prone to hacking, might violate the constitutional right to vote. Here are … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: A campaign staffer for Mike Siegel, the Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, was arrested Wednesday while delivering a letter to the Waller County Courthouse, the Waller County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Thursday. According to a news release … Continue reading
Politico: The Georgia NAACP is preparing to sue Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee for governor, in response to a report that Kemp’s office has put on hold tens of thousands of voter registration applications, most of them … Continue reading
Josh Douglas LAT oped. … Continue reading
Cleveland.com reports. … Continue reading
You can find the cert. petition in Utah Republican Party v. Cox at this link. Here are the questions presented: As a private expressive association, “[a] political party” enjoys a general First Amendment right “to choose a candidate-selection process that … Continue reading
New ACS Issue Brief. There’s also an Oct. 18 webinar. … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Tonight Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg granted the federal government’s request to put off the depositions of two high-level Trump administration officials, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and John Gore, the acting head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Gore’s … Continue reading
Equally American: This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review in Segovia v. United States, a lawsuit seeking to expand voting rights in U.S. territories. The lawsuit was brought by Equally American on behalf of a group of veterans and others living in Guam, … Continue reading
Oy. … Continue reading
Stephen Mortellaro has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Journal on Law and Politics): The promise of democracy has not been kept to renters. The First Amendment protects renters and homeowners alike from governmental speech suppression, but neither landlord-tenant law … Continue reading
ProPublica: Election Experts: We Need You If you’re an expert in election administration or election law, and you’re interested in helping us cover voting during the 2018 midterms, here’s how. by Jessica Huseman Oct. 9, 5 a.m. EDT Electionland is gearing … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: The federal government went to the Supreme Court today, requesting a halt to the depositions of two senior Trump administration officials – Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and John Gore, the acting head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division … Continue reading
This post by Geoffrey Wyatt and Neil Weare is online at the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review blog. See also Pamela Colon’s post at Latino Rebels. … Continue reading
Justin Levitt has posted this timely draft on SSRN (forthcoming Columbia Law Review). Here is the abstract: On March 26, 2018, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross determined that the federal government would use the 2020 decennial Census to ask every … Continue reading
Brennan Center: The National Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy – a group of former public servants and policy experts housed at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law – today laid out a vision for strengthening government ethics and the … Continue reading
John Fortier for Roll Call … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading
Laura Brill for the Civics Center: Before high school graduation, every student should understand the basic principles of how government works and how to participate fully in our democracy. This is a pretty simple goal, but we’re far from achieving … Continue reading
Release: New Tools to Destroy Partisan Gerrymandering Recognized in Common Cause Writing Contest LOS ANGELES, September 24, 2018 — As Common Cause takes its quest to end partisan gerrymandering to the U.S. Supreme Court in Common Cause v. Rucho, it … Continue reading
Sure he titled his NRO piece, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” and he supposedly offered to resign from EPPC (which was rejected by his board, as he took a leave of absence). But there are good reasons to believe Whelan is far … Continue reading
NPR: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to make its main official behind the 2020 census citizenship question — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — available to testify out of court for the lawsuits over the hotly contested question. “Secretary Ross … Continue reading
Cap Times: Stubbs will be the first African-American person elected to represent Dane County in the state Legislature, in a state that continues to rank among the worst in the nation for racial equality. She was, at the time of the … Continue reading
Last night, in a remarkable act of bad faith, Ed Whelan accused another person without credible evidence of the attempted rape of Dr. Ford, in an effort to claim that Judge Kavanaugh was a victim of mistaken identity. The extensive … Continue reading
Looking forward to being the luncheon keynote at this PLI event in San Francisco on October 4. There’s also going to be a webcast. Here’s a link for a 20% discount on the program. … Continue reading
Here’s the abstract for a new paper of mine, forthcoming in a Harvard Law & Policy Review symposium on representation, power, and corruption: Academic studies of redistricting tend to be either doctrinal or empirical, but not both. As a result, … Continue reading
Right. For those who have not been following this closely, Secretary Ross initially said — including in sworn congressional testimony — that DOJ initially approached him about adding the citizenship question. This email, among others, show that story was, um, … Continue reading
NPR: In a sign that America’s two centuries-old democracy is under strain, nearly 2 in 5 American voters do not believe elections are fair, according to a new NPR/Marist poll. Nearly half of respondents lack faith that votes will be counted … Continue reading
Smith in WaPo: The first relevant statute is 18 U.S.C. 201, which prohibits any person from “corruptly” offering “anything of value to any public official . . . with intent to influence any official act.” The organizers and donors here clearly want … Continue reading
I wanted to flag for the blog’s readers some significant developments that took place this week in the North Carolina and Wisconsin partisan gerrymandering cases. In North Carolina, the trial court agreed to stay the remedial process on the condition … Continue reading
This is the second in a series of guest posts by Travis Crum: In this series of posts, I’m addressing the statutory, constitutional, and strategic issues surrounding a potential bail-in of Texas. But before we dive into this ongoing redistricting … Continue reading
The OC Register reports. … Continue reading
Op-ed at WRAL. … Continue reading
3-Californias is dead. … Continue reading
Elizabeth Reese has posted this draft on SSRN (Cardozo Law Review). Here is the abstract: To protect state sovereignty, contemporary textualism has reinvigorated the Tenth Amendment as a judicially enforceable limit on federal powers. However, in casting the Tenth Amendment … Continue reading
Howard with the details. … Continue reading
Common Cause ratings. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: On Monday, Sen. Susan Collins accused political opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh of attempted “bribery.” The charge itself is without any legal merit whatsoever. That complaints about the campaign finance effort … Continue reading
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. … Continue reading
Long Beach Business Journal. … Continue reading
Thanks to Justin for filling in the last few days. So. Much. News. … Continue reading
A Ninth Circuit panel today unanimously reversed a lower court decision barring California’s collection of IRS Form 990 Schedule B, which lists the top contributors to 501c3 organizations. This was an as-applied claim by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and … Continue reading
And Shana Tovah. It’s Justin: I’ll be at the helm of the blog for a day or two. Please send your news (and your hate mail) my way for the next 48 hours. … Continue reading