Category Archives: legislation and legislatures

Justice Scalia Dissent in Aereo Case Says It is Lawyers’ Jobs to Exploit Statutory Loopholes, and Congress’s Job, Not the Court’s Job, To Fix Them

June 25, 2014, 10:27 amlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

He writes: It is not the role of this Court to identify and plug loopholes. It is the role of good lawyers to identify and exploit them, and the role of Congress to eliminate them if it wishes. Congress… Continue reading

65 Ways to Improve Our Democracy

June 24, 2014, 2:21 pmballot access, campaigns, citizen commissions, election administration, Fixing Election Administration, legislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarization, primaries, provisional ballots, recounts, redistricting, The Voting Warsbipartisan commission, early voting, election reform, national primary day, recountsHeather Gerken

Today the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform rolled out its recommendations and report today on strengthening American democracy. Academics are usually on the outside looking in for such processes, but I was lucky enough to serve as one… Continue reading

“Governing in a Polarized America: A Bipartisan Blueprint to Strengthen our Democracy”

June 24, 2014, 9:51 amlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarization, redistrictingRick Hasen

Release: The Bipartisan Policy Center launched the Commission on Political Reform in 2013 to investigate the causes and consequences of America’s partisan political divide and to advocate for specific reforms that will improve the political process and that will… Continue reading

“Another Senate dispute puts spending bills in jeopardy”

June 21, 2014, 6:54 pmlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Parliamentary maneuverings and election year politics.

“Identifying Congressional Overrides Should Not Be this Hard”

June 20, 2014, 3:48 pmlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Very important Deborah Widiss piece (Texas Law Review See Also) on statutory overrides of the Supreme Court. Here is the abstract: This paper is an invited response to Professor William N. Eskridge, Jr., and Mr. Matthew R. Christiansen’s recently-released study… Continue reading

Highlights from The New Soft Money

June 18, 2014, 9:03 amcampaign finance, legislation and legislaturesDan Tokaji

Dan Tokaji & Renata Strause Thanks to Rick and Heather for their posts on The New Soft Money, the report on outside spending that we released this morning. We believe this report to be the first of its kind,… Continue reading

Election Law @ Moritz Report, “The New Soft Money,” Coming This Wed., June 18

June 13, 2014, 9:08 amcampaign finance, legislation and legislatures, lobbyingDan Tokaji

I’m pleased to announce the release of a report on independent spending, co-authored by Renata Strause and me, on Wednesday, June 18. The report, entitled The New Soft Money: Outside Spending in Congressional Elections, will be released at the National … Continue reading

“How Democrats Are Accidentally Helping The Koch Brothers”

June 10, 2014, 8:45 amcampaigns, legislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

HuffPo reports.

“Why It Matters That Politicians Have No Experience of Poverty”

June 5, 2014, 7:31 pmlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Stephen Lurie writes for The Atlantic.

Democrats Unlikely to Have Supermajorities in Next CA Legislature

June 5, 2014, 7:02 amcampaigns, legislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

So reports the LA Times.

“Academic highlight: Congressional overrides of Supreme Court decisions”

May 30, 2014, 4:40 pmlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Amanda Frost writes at SCOTUSBlog about Christiansen and Eskridge, Congressional Overrides of Supreme Court Statutory Interpretation Decisions, 1967–2011 (Texas Law Review). My earlier coverage is here; and I will be writing a response with Jim Buatti for the Texas… Continue reading

“Gridlock in Congress? It’s probably even worse than you think”

May 29, 2014, 8:33 amlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Aaron Blake on Sarah Binder’s Polarized We Govern?

“Intertemporal Statutory Interpretation and the Evolution of Legislative Drafting”

May 23, 2014, 8:39 pmlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretationRick Hasen

Jarrod Shobe has posted this draft on SSRN (Columbia Law Review). Here is the abstract: All theories of statutory interpretation rely on an idea of how Congress operates. A commonly held supposition among scholars is that the procedures used in… Continue reading