Newsday reports: “Two big-spending political action committees quietly paid nearly $1 million last week to end an investigation alleging they violated election laws by illegally coordinating activities with Lee Zeldin’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign. … “The groups agreed to pay a… Continue reading

N.Y. Times reports: “The Department of Justice has issued a subpoena for records related to the travel history of Fani T. Willis, the Georgia district attorney who charged President Trump in a sweeping election interference case, according to a… Continue reading

I missed this story a couple of days ago. I’m blogging about it now because I know from writing Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States (2nd edition 2024) that playing politics with swearing-in House members… Continue reading

Wall Street Journal editorial offers a perspective worth considering: There’s no doubt that [the Comey Indictment] is a political prosecution with a revenge motive. … “Yet please spare us the media narrative that this prosecution ‘shatters norms’ at the Justice… Continue reading

It’s an obvious point, but it can’t be emphasized enough, that the predicament that America’s partisan political competition is currently in is because the Senate failed to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. Whatever one thinks of how the… Continue reading

The Economist (behind a paywall): “Ted Cruz, a conservative senator from Texas, set a particularly striking example of consistency recently on free speech. … He couched his defence of speech not in high principle but in instrumental terms: ‘It might… Continue reading

This week’s essays include the following: Today, with an international perspective, from Cora Chan on Liberal Enclaves inside repressive regimes. Cora is a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong. Ned blogged about this essay earlier today.  ”… Continue reading

Very interesting perspective from Cora Chan, a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, as part of the NYU Law Democracy Project’s “100 ideas for 100 days” series. The essay addresses “subnational regions that enjoy substantially more… Continue reading

Courthouse News Service: “The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Thursday on the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s exemption from the transparency requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. … “Assistant Wisconsin Attorney General Brian… Continue reading

CBS News has a lengthy report on this disturbing breach. “Contacted by CBS News, the NPRC told CBS News that a technician did not follow standard operating procedures for releasing records, and should only have released portions eligible under FOIA… Continue reading

After observing that the grand jury declined to indict on one charge, POLITICO’s Playbook goes on to note: “POLITICO legal columnist Ankush Khardori writes in to say that he’s ‘honestly surprised that the DOJ managed to get this past a… Continue reading

Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein for POLITICO: “A grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted Comey on Thursday on two felony charges stemming from Comey’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020 about the FBI’s investigation into links between… Continue reading

N.Y. Times: “A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, a culmination of President Trump’s relentless effort to exact retribution for investigating his 2016 presidential campaign over possible ties to Russia, according to… Continue reading

Justin blogged on this development earlier today. Here’s the N.Y. Times story on it. The story includes the response in Pennsylvania: “Al Schmidt, the secretary of state in Pennsylvania and a Republican, said in a statement Thursday afternoon that he… Continue reading