New paper: Insufficient attention has been given to studying a vital organ jeopardized by covid-19: legislatures. Legislatures across the globe have been shut down or limited due to covid-19. In a comprehensive multidisciplinary study, exploring legislatures across 159 countries,… Continue reading

NYT reports.

NYT: Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday threw her support behind a plan to allow House members to cast votes by proxy, conceding for the first time that the coronavirus pandemic that has forced Congress into an extended recess would… Continue reading

NYT: Senate Republicans were struggling to salvage a more than $1 trillion economic rescue package to respond to the coronavirus crisis when they got the message on Sunday afternoon: One of their own had been walking around the Capitol with… Continue reading

Garrett Graff for Politico.

Richard Briffault has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Albany Law Review). Here is the abstract: Critics of the proliferation of omnibus legislation in Congress have suggested that state constitutions offer a potential solution. Forty-three state constitutions include some sort… Continue reading

Rebecca Kysar has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, U, Pa. L. Rev.). Here is the abstract: To overcome congressional gridlock, lawmakers have developed devices that, under certain conditions, provide easier paths to policy change. Procedural mechanisms may eliminate the… Continue reading

New data analysis in The Upshot.

After a vote on a tax treaty with Japan, Vermont’s only Democratic Senator ever is now one of four Senators in history to reach the 16,000-vote plateau.

See Lavergne v. U.S. House of Representatives. See my earlier coverage: Litigating to a Larger House of Representatives Based on a Secretly Ratified Constitutional Amendment?