Category Archives: judicial elections

“No Guardians of These Names”

October 18, 2016, 8:25 amcampaign finance, judicial elections, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

National Institute on Money in State Politics: On Sept. 14, 2016, The Guardian released 1,500 pages of leaked documents pertaining to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s alleged coordination with conservative dark money groups during the 2011 and 2012 Wisconsin recall… Continue reading

“Supreme Court candidates suggest their opponents have been bought”

October 11, 2016, 12:14 pmcampaign finance, judicial electionsRick Hasen

Montana Standard: But the spike in spending on judicial campaigns has heightened public concerns over whether the justices who are elected can do that. More than $1.1 million has been raised by Juras, Sandefur and organizations supporting their campaigns, according… Continue reading

“Lessons From Pa.’s Judicial Retirement Age Ballot Fiasco”

October 11, 2016, 8:11 amdirect democracy, judicial electionsRick Hasen

Howard Bashman: s polling expert Berwood Yost of Franklin & Marshall College persuasively demonstrated in an essay that The Philadelphia Inquirer published last week, the current phrasing of the ballot question is misleading insofar as it omits that Pennsylvania’s current… Continue reading

WI Prosecutors’ Statement on #JohnDoe Cert Denial

October 4, 2016, 4:26 pmcampaign finance, judicial elections, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Here. What a shame.

“US Supreme Court rejects John Doe appeal”

October 4, 2016, 3:56 pmcampaign finance, judicial elections, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Wisconsin State Journal: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by three Democratic district attorneys seeking to revive a criminal investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s recall campaign — effectively ending the legal wrangling over the four-year-old probe. The… Continue reading

“Secret Money Floods Judicial Elections”

September 28, 2016, 8:01 amcampaign finance, judicial electionsRick Hasen

TAP: John Paul Stevens called it right. Dissenting in 2010 from the Supreme Court’s notorious Citizens United ruling to overturn limits on big spending in campaigns, the now-retired Supreme Court justice warned that the decision’s toxic implications would extend… Continue reading

Full Court Press to Get #SCOTUS to Take Up WI #JohnDoe Case (As It Should)

September 25, 2016, 11:34 amcampaign finance, campaigns, judicial elections, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Lincoln Caplan in the New Yorker. Billy Corriher at Think Progress.

“Editorial: The ethical collapse of Justices Michael Gableman and David Prosser”

September 22, 2016, 7:43 amcampaign finance, chicanery, judicial electionsRick Hasen

Cap Times: Four years after Walker’s email declared that Johnson and the Wisconsin Club for Growth were vital to electing Prosser and Gableman, these two justices cast decisive votes in a state Supreme Court decision that shut down an investigation… Continue reading

“NC Supreme Court election could change ideological tilt”

September 18, 2016, 8:47 pmjudicial elections, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

News and Observer: It was not until May that it became clear Edmunds would face any challengers in his campaign to keep his seat. In 2015, the Republican-led General Assembly passed a law that changed how sitting justices could be… Continue reading

“U.S. Supreme Court could announce Wisconsin John Doe decision in October”

September 14, 2016, 9:32 pmcampaign finance, chicanery, judicial elections, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

The Cap Times reports.

“Lawyers’ Committee Files Federal Voting Rights Lawsuit Challenging Discriminatory Method of Electing Judges to Highest Courts in State of Alabama”

September 7, 2016, 8:54 amjudicial elections, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Release: Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and four individual black voters alleging that the method of electing Alabama’s most powerful judges… Continue reading

“State’s chief justice won’t contest moving on to general election with opponent”

August 29, 2016, 8:59 amjudicial electionsRick Hasen

Tacoma News Tribune: For a time, Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Madsen thought her runaway lead over two opponents in the August primary election might send her unopposed into the general election. She was unsure in early … Continue reading

6th Cir., in Thoughtful J. Sutton Opinion, Upholds Ban on Endorsements by Judicial Candidates

August 24, 2016, 9:23 amcampaigns, judicial electionsRick Hasen

This strikes me as an exceptionally thoughtful opinion, upholding some judicial campaign regulations and striking down others. It also shows how the Supreme Court’s Williams-Yulee decision has changed the calculus on which judicial campaign regulations can survive First Amendment attack.… Continue reading

“Dark money group seeks investigation of Kansas Supreme Court justice”

August 23, 2016, 8:47 pmcampaign finance, judicial elections, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Bryan Lowry for the Wichita Eagle: A national dark money group has revived a 2-year-old controversy involving a Kansas Supreme Court justice and filed an ethics complaint with the state’s Commission on Judicial Qualifications. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic… Continue reading