I’m struck by the similarity of the underlying factual contexts in these two cases. Only one Justice on the current Court, Justice Thomas, was on the Court that decided Shaw, and the similarity is not apparent from the opinion in… Continue reading

Igor Okunev has written this new book (sample on Amazon). Here is the description: Electoral geography is the study of the spatial dimension of the electoral process. It examines the factors and patterns underlying long-standing ideological and political splits… Continue reading

John Martin has posted “Regulating Foreign Political Advocacy,” forthcoming in the North Carolina Law Review, on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: Foreign nationals can presently spend unlimited sums of money on political communications in the United States, including donations to issue-advocacy… Continue reading

In the eyes of many, Shelby County is one of the nadirs of the Roberts Court: an ignominious decision that tore out the heart of the Voting Rights Act. But that’s not Justice Kavanaugh’s view. As he suggested in his… Continue reading

NYT: President Donald Trump said his administration was considering whether to establish a compensation fund for pardoned rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop certification of the election that he lost to former President Joseph. R.… Continue reading

Michigan Public Radio: A group of Republican state lawmakers is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for them to challenge two voter-approved amendments to the Michigan Constitution. This is a last-ditch effort by the GOP legislators to… Continue reading

AJC: Georgia election officials plan to cancel about 455,000 inactive voter registrations this summer, one of the largest registration removals in U.S. history. More than half the registrations scheduled for cancellation were identified by a 24-state organization called ERIC, which… Continue reading

I’ll be participating in this important event tomorrow, which is being put on by the ABA Task Force on American Democracy. The other participants are: Judge Paul Grimm (Ret.) – David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law, Duke… Continue reading

…for blogging this week. We’ll have a number of other primary bloggers coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned.

Always great to serve in the lead role for a week, and always great to hand it back to Rick H.!

In light of the upcoming Supreme Court argument in Louisiana v. Callais, Travis Crum published a guest post at this blog arguing that racial gerrymandering should not be unconstitutional. Crum rejects the 30+ year line of cases that began with… Continue reading

Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas lawmakers voted to change how Kansas appoints its Supreme Court nominations from a commission-led process to direct elections. Currently, the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission provides the governor three potential judges, from which the governor selects.… Continue reading

In the NYT essay I wrote with Trevor Morrison on the tools courts have to deal with executive defiance of court orders, we concluded by noting that a major confrontation between the two branches might have significant effects on financial… Continue reading