Category Archives: court decisions

4th Circuit finds RNC raised federal question in NC state equal protection dispute by invoking HAVA

October 29, 2024, 1:04 pmcourt decisions, voter registrationDerek Muller

Wonky civil procedure decision today (that is, Republicans filed in state courts and would have preferred to stay there; the board removed to federal court and wanted to stay there) in RNC v. N.C. State Bd. of Elections (lightly revised):… Continue reading

No private right of action to enforce list maintenance, voter registration provisions of HAVA, federal court holds

October 18, 2024, 6:10 amcourt decisions, election law and constitutional lawDerek Muller

Continuing a recent tranche of lower court debates over whether certain election-related provisions permit a private right of action, including Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and Election Day date provisions of federal law, a federal judge in North… Continue reading

Arizona Supreme Court approves rules for “priority adjudication of post-general election judicial proceedings”

October 15, 2024, 11:37 amcourt decisionsDerek Muller

On the heels of the proposed rules in Colorado and the rules in Pennsylvania, here are new rules in Arizona to expedite election disputes. These rules continue to show that state courts are taking the deadlines of the Electoral… Continue reading

Divided Seventh Circuit finds no standing for congressional candidate to challenge Illinois’s absentee ballot receipt deadline

August 22, 2024, 5:40 amcourt decisionsDerek Muller

The court was mostly unanimous but divided on a congressional candidate’s standing–including an interesting discussion that occasionally comes up in election law about what kind of risks or likelihoods courts should be thinking about when resolving disputes before an election… Continue reading

ProPublica Report on Judicial Recusal

July 16, 2024, 10:06 amconflict of interest laws, court decisionsDan Tokaji

Released today: A ProPublica analysis found a lack of transparency regarding conflicts plagues federal and state courts where loose rules, inconsistent enforcement and creative interpretations of guidelines routinely allow judges to withhold potential conflicts from the parties before them.… Continue reading

“The Basis for Election Exceptionalism in Justiciability and Related Doctrines: ‘Constitutional Compensation’ in Light of Purcell”

July 1, 2024, 6:25 amcourt decisions, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Vik Amar and Evan Caminker have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, University of Illinois L. Rev.). Here is the abstract: Pursuant to the so-called Purcell doctrine, lower federal courts (and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court itself) are supposed to… Continue reading

Could the Court’s unanimous decision in FDA v. AHM upend some federal election litigation?

June 13, 2024, 8:06 amcourt decisions, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

In order to sue in federal court, a plaintiff must have “standing,” an actual or imminent concrete and particularized injury in fact caused by the defendant and redressable by a federal court. Many lawsuits are thrown out for lack of… Continue reading

Clopton and Shaw on litigation and electoral time

December 17, 2023, 9:26 amcourt decisions, legislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

New draft from Zachary Clopton (Northwestern) and Kate Shaw (Cardozo en route to Penn), forthcoming in the Wisconsin Law Review, is here, entitled Public Law Litigation and Electoral Time. Here’s the abstract: Public law litigation is often politics by… Continue reading

“Judge Pauses Trump Election Case Amid Appeal of Immunity Issue”

December 14, 2023, 6:25 amcourt decisionsDerek Muller

Alan Feuer, New York Times: A federal judge on Wednesday put on hold all of the proceedings in former President Donald J. Trump’s trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election as an appeals court in Washington… Continue reading

“Michael Cohen’s lawyer in hot water after citing court cases that don’t exist”

December 13, 2023, 1:53 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, court decisionsDerek Muller

Politico: Michael Cohen’s troubles just keep coming. In the yearslong legal saga over his connection to the hush money payments from Donald Trump to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, Cohen’s lawyer filed a motion to end his supervised release… Continue reading

“Rupert Murdoch Can Be Forced to Testify in Defamation Trial, Judge Says”

April 5, 2023, 3:09 pmchicanery, court decisions, election subversion riskJustin Levitt

In addition to Fox’s star on-screen hosts, the judge in the Dominion defamation case has said that “if Dominion issued a subpoena for Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corp, and other corporate officers, he ‘would not quash it’ and… Continue reading

Federal courts note circuit split on whether the “materiality” provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes a right privately enforceable under Section 1983

March 30, 2023, 8:50 amabsentee ballots, court decisionsDerek Muller

The “materiality” provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is as follows: No person acting under color of law shall . . . deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or… Continue reading

“The American Law Institute Launches Restatement of the Law, Election Litigation”

January 20, 2023, 7:33 amcourt decisions, election administrationDerek Muller

I’m thrilled to share the details about this new project from the ALI: The American Law Institute’s Council voted today to approve the launch of a Restatement of the Law project on Election Litigation. The project will be led… Continue reading

Ninth Circuit upholds California’s two-step recall process

November 30, 2022, 6:10 amcourt decisions, recall electionsDerek Muller

The Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Clark v. Weber, approving California’s two-step recall process. In the recall, voters first vote “yes” or “no” on the recall; after that, they may vote on a new candidate for governor, but… Continue reading