Category Archives: Voting Rights Act

“DOJ: Witness requirement on Alabama absentee ballots not Voting Rights violation”

May 26, 2020, 3:22 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Montgomery Advertiser: The U.S. Department of Justice argued in a brief filed Tuesday that Alabama’s current requirement to have witnesses sign an absentee ballot is not a violation of the Voting Rights Act. The brief, filed in a lawsuit… Continue reading

“Federal judge sides with NAACP in voting rights challenge of East Ramapo school district”

May 26, 2020, 11:54 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Gannett: A federal judge struck down the method East Ramapo uses to elect its school board Tuesday, saying the current setup is unfair to black and Latino voters.U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel, in a 77-page decision issued this morning,… Continue reading

My New Draft Article: “Three Pathologies of American Voting Rights Illuminated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and How to Treat and Cure Them”

May 19, 2020, 7:07 amelection administration, voting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

I have posted this draft on SSRN, which is a work in progress aimed at a moving target. Comments welcome. Here is the abstract: The COVID-19 global pandemic, which already has claimed approximately 90,000 lives in the United States as… Continue reading

“Arizona Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Uphold Ballot Harvesting Ban, Out of Precinct Policy (READ Petition)”

April 27, 2020, 11:45 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Over at AZ Law.

Georgia: “Lawsuit demands Spanish absentee ballot applications in Gwinnett”

April 16, 2020, 4:11 pmabsentee ballots, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

AJC reports.

“The Roberts Court Has Made the Looming Coronavirus Election Crisis So Much Worse”

April 3, 2020, 11:38 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

David Gans: The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder left a gaping hole in our Constitution’s promise of democracy and opened the door to rampant voter suppression. Now COVID-19 is making things exponentially worse.

Travis Crum: “The Curious Disappearance of Shelby County”

March 27, 2020, 7:03 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Travis Crum: Earlier this week, the Supreme Court issued a decision that could have significant consequences for the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation applied against the… Continue reading

“National, Texas Democrats file lawsuit to keep straight-ticket voting for 2020 election”

March 5, 2020, 7:16 pmelection administration, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: After some Texans waited more than six hours to cast their ballot on Super Tuesday, national and Texas Democrats filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that would eliminate straight-ticket voting come November.In a … Continue reading

“Trump’s DOJ Has Not Filed A Single New Voting Rights Act Case”

March 5, 2020, 9:31 amDepartment of Justice, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Tierney Sneed for TPM: The apparent refusal of President Trump’s Justice Department to engage in any meaningful, public enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has taken Republicans’ general hostility to the law to a whole new level. The DOJ has… Continue reading

“‘Bloody Sunday’ Commemoration Draws Democratic Candidates to Selma”

March 1, 2020, 7:35 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

NYT: residential candidates and prominent social justice activists descended on Alabama on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of the brutal attack on civil rights marchers here in 1965, one of the most violent episodes in the struggle for black participation… Continue reading

“Judge: Alabama’s method of electing appellate judges not discriminatory”

February 6, 2020, 4:09 pmjudicial elections, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

AL.com: Alabama’s method of electing appellate judges does not dilute the voting power of blacks, a Montgomery federal judge ruled Wednesday in a case brought against the state by the Alabama NAACP.The group contended that Alabama’s at-large elections of… Continue reading

Wow: 11th Circuit Rejects State of Alabama’s Argument That Congress Did Not Intend to Allow Private Litigants to Be Able to Sue for Violation of Section 2 of the VRA, But Judge Branch Remarkably Dissents

February 3, 2020, 5:55 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Crazy news on the 150th anniversary of the Fifteenth Amendment. States ordinarily have sovereign immunity against lawsuits without their consent. But Congress has the power to “abrogate” (or eliminate) that immunity through a statute. For decades, it has been unquestioned… Continue reading

Breaking: Divided En Banc 9th Circuit Holds Arizona Violated Voting Rights Act by Not Partially Counting Out-of-Precinct Provisional Ballots and Engaged in Intentional Racial Discrimination in Banning Collection of Absentee Ballots

January 27, 2020, 9:29 amelection administration, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the 432 pages of opinions at this link. I strongly suspect that the Supreme Court will take this case, which reversed a lower court and a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel. A finding of intentional discrimination is especially… Continue reading

“The New Voter Suppression”

January 23, 2020, 2:36 pmThe Voting Wars, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

New Brennan Center report: On Election Day in 1960, four unanswerable questions awaited Clarence Gaskins, a Black voter in Georgia looking to cast his ballot for president. Upon arrival at his designated polling place, he was ushered into a room… Continue reading

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