I have now had a chance to make a first pass through Judge Furman’s 277-page opinion holding that the inclusion of the citizenship question on the census violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The key conclusion was that Commerce Secretary Wilbur … Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
CNBC reports. … Continue reading
The Court’s 277-page opinion is here. Given the court’s findings of no unconstitutional purpose on the part of Secretary Ross, it is not clear to me if this moots issues in the portion of this case being argued next month … Continue reading
I mentioned the other day that H.R. 1 would revolutionize American redistricting by requiring congressional maps to be designed by independent commissions. The bill would spark equally radical change in how congressional campaigns are financed, by creating two separate public … Continue reading
Via email: We are pleased to issue a call for papers for the 2019 Election Sciences, Reform, and Administration (ESRA) conference. The conference will take place at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA on July 11–12, 2019. This is the third annual ESRA conference, with the … Continue reading
Michael Waldman in the NYDN. … Continue reading
Notice: Due to the weather, we're forced to cancel tomorrow's event on #votingrights feat.: @JoshuaADouglas @jamalgreene of @ColumbiaLaw @rickhasen of @marinakate31moderated by @pemalevy of @MotherJones https://t.co/gVZ2mCIZMp pic.twitter.com/FE3NgAgTL2 — American Constitution Society (@acslaw) January 14, 2019
Very good news for supporters of campaign finance contribution limits to candidates: the Supreme Court without noted dissent has turned down Lair v. Magnan, a case which could have been the basis to attack all individual contribution limits to candidates. … Continue reading
AP: After Georgia’s 2018 elections focused stinging criticism on the state’s outdated election system, a study commission voted Thursday to recommend the use of machines that record votes and print a record. Members of the panel tasked with considering potential replacement … Continue reading
Paul Ryan: According to a court filing earlier this week, former 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian citizen with ties to Russian intelligence. If the data Manafort shared with Kilimnik was … Continue reading
PS Mag profile of Jonathan Motl. … Continue reading
H.R. 1—the omnibus electoral reform bill recently unveiled in the House—has received surprisingly little attention on this blog. Sure, it’s not going to be passed by the Senate or signed by President Trump. But it probably is going to be … Continue reading
BAN: On January 9, the Fourth Circuit issued a 24-page opinion in Sixth Congressional District Republican Committee v Alcorn, 18-1111. The opinion strikes down the Virginia election law that lets incumbents who are running for re-election dictate to their own … Continue reading
Bob Egelko reports for the SF Chronicle. … Continue reading
Amy Howe for SCOTUSBlog: Today the Supreme Court rejected a request by Virginia legislators to put lower-court proceedings in a case challenging the legislative districts drawn for the state’s House of Delegates as the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering – that is, … Continue reading
Politifact rates as “Mostly False” a Democratic party statement that new North Carolina legislation makes the investigation into the #NC09 controversy less transparent. … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
LAT: Gov. Jerry Brown’s recent pardon of former state Sen. Roderick Wright was supported by several of California’s top political figures but opposed by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey, who warned it would undermine a fundamental state law, … Continue reading
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s order agreeing to hear the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case, I wanted to flag some key differences between this suit and last year’s Wisconsin case: Standing: The Court held that the Wisconsin plaintiffs … Continue reading
Paul Blumenthal for HuffPost: House Democrats unveiled Friday the For the People Act, a comprehensive package of democratic reforms and the first major bill of the 116th Congress. The bill is a sweeping combination of election, campaign finance and ethics … Continue reading
Trip Gabriel for the NYT: Voting rights and partisan gerrymandering, traditionally the preoccupation of wonky party strategists and good-government groups, have become major flash points in the debate about the integrity of American elections, signaling high stakes battles over voter … Continue reading
Once again it has been a busy year for the Election Law Blog and 2019 promises some major developments as well in the area of voting rights, campaign finance, redistricting, polarization, the Supreme Court and other topics. I’ve got a … Continue reading
CNN: ov. Paul LePage certified the election results for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District after a recount and legal battle dragged out the final result in the race for almost two months, cementing a Democratic victory. But, LePage — a Republican … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
Moving these off the sidebar as well: Softening Voter ID Laws Through Litigation: Is it Enough?, 2016 Wisconsin Law Review Forward 100 (2016) Election Law’s Path in the Roberts Court’s First Decade: A Sharp Right Turn But with Speed Bumps and Surprising … Continue reading
Moving these off the sidebar as I spruce things up around here: Is the Supreme Court finally ready to tackle partisan gerrymandering? Signs suggest yes, Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2017 Vote Suppressors Unleashed, Slate, November 27, 2017 Why Banning Russian Facebook … Continue reading
Charles Stewart: For the past two decades, Americans have consistently exhibited a “winner’s effect” in judging whether votes were counted fairly in elections. The 2018 election broke that pattern. In particular, prior to 2018, it was common for voters who … Continue reading
As expected. … Continue reading
I’m looking forward to participating in this event on January 14 in DC: ACS > Events January 14, 2019 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM , Eastern Time Flipping the Narrative: Taking the Voting Rights Struggle from Defense to Offense Much of the narrative around … Continue reading
NYT: A report submitted to a Senate committee about Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election says that social media companies made misleading or evasive claims about whether the efforts tried to discourage voting or targeted African-Americans on their platforms. The report, … Continue reading
See here: And some more mentioning me: … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
The Guardian reports. … Continue reading
Marc Fisher for WaPo: As if the country didn’t have enough to be divided about, now the forces aligned for and against President Trump are battling over whether his presidency is legitimate. The evidence emerging in recent days and months … Continue reading
EPIC: Pam S. Karlan, Stanford Law professor and EPIC Advisor, delivered a speech to the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), where she is also Board Chair. The mission of ACS is to “promote the vitality of the U.S. … Continue reading
WaPo column: But the case is actually harmful for Trump — especially what the judge ruled. Edwards repeatedly argued that the payments were not campaign contributions because they were not made exclusively to further his campaign. The judge rejected this … Continue reading
AL.com reports. … Continue reading
I'm very excited to share that HuffPost is releasing "Shut Out" — a 3-part podcast about the fight to vote in America. It's hosted by @cslwrites and reported by both of us. You can download it on Monday 12/17. Here's … Continue reading
Lyle Denniston: A group of Maryland Republican voters, claiming that they were penalized for supporting their party’s candidates in the polling booth, asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to make a sweeping review of the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, and … Continue reading
News and Observer: A proposal that would require another primary in the 9th Congressional District if suspected absentee ballot fraud results in a new election won legislative approval Wednesday. The requirement for a complete do-over in the 9th District is … Continue reading
NPR: To Rosanell Eaton, the restrictive new laws seemed familiar. Eaton was the granddaughter of enslaved people who grew up under Jim Crow in Louisburg, N.C., and had been fighting against rules meant to keep black people from voting for … Continue reading
I spoke with Ari Shapiro of NPR’s All Things Considered. … Continue reading
Matt Glassman for The Monkey Cage. … Continue reading
Announcement via email: The University of Michigan Law School invites junior scholars to attend the 5th Annual Junior Scholars Conference, which will be held on April 26-27, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The conference provides junior scholars with a platform … Continue reading
As readers of this blog know, I’m no fan of how far the radical changes that were made in the 1970s to the presidential nominations process went in eliminating any special weight that elected party officials, from throughout the country, … Continue reading
Worth a read. … Continue reading