Category Archives: legislation and legislatures

“Investors, worried they can’t beat lawmakers in stock market, copy them instead”

June 2, 2024, 9:59 amconflict of interest laws, legislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

WaPo: Members of Congress hear a lot of secrets: classified briefings, confidential previews of pending legislation and the private opinions of constituents, regulators, corporate executives and world leaders. Watchdog groups have long believed that somelawmakers use that information to make… Continue reading

“Henry Cuellar Indicted Over Bribery Scheme”

May 5, 2024, 12:00 pmbribery, chicanery, legislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Missed this story (and the Illinois one Derek flags) while traveling: Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in a crucial swing district, and his wife were charged with participating in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a… Continue reading

Federal Court Rejects on Standing Grounds Michigan Legislators Suit Against Voting Initiatives Premised on Embrace of Rejected ISLT Theory

April 11, 2024, 6:51 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

You can read the decision at this link. Here was my initial coverage: Michigan GOP Lawmakers Appear to Rely on Rejected Version of Independent State Legislature Theory to Attack Recent Voting Laws Passed by Initiative October 2, 2023, … Continue reading

“In Electoral Disputes, State Justices Are Less Reliable GOP Allies than the U.S. Supreme Court—That’s the ‘Problem’ the Independent State Legislature Claim Hopes to Solve”

April 4, 2024, 8:20 amlegislation and legislatures, political polarization, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Rebecca L. Brown, Lee Epstein, and Michael J. Nelson have this new article in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Here is the abstract: Scholars have identified serious drawbacks to the independent state… Continue reading

“The ‘Bounds’ of Moore: Pluralism and State Judicial Review”

April 1, 2024, 12:04 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Leah Litman and Kate Shaw have written this essay for the Yale Law Journal Forum. Here is the abstract: In Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court rejected a maximalist version of the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), invoking state judicial… Continue reading

“Trump ballot ruling raises new questions even as it answers others”

March 8, 2024, 7:51 amlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Patrick Marley for WaPo: The Supreme Court quickly and unanimously resolved a case this week that had divided legal scholars for months, clearing a path for Donald Trump to remain on the ballot for president nationwide. But in doing so,… Continue reading

“Pa. lawmakers file lawsuit against Shapiro, Biden over election-related orders”

January 28, 2024, 9:26 pmlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Penn Live: A group of conservative Pennsylvania lawmakers have filed suit against President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro over their use of executive authority in election matters. In the 33-page complaint filed on Thursday in U.S. Middle District Court,… 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

“‘Thank God they walked out’: Oregon’s partisan divide highlights heightened animosity in statehouses”

December 13, 2023, 9:52 amlegislation and legislaturesDerek Muller

Politico: Ten Oregon Republican senators may face the end of their legislative careers for a six-week legislative walkout aimed at thwarting what they see as a radical Democratic agenda on guns, abortion and transgender health care. The lawmakers are… Continue reading

State power and the Term Limits v. Thornton problem in Anderson v. Griswold

November 19, 2023, 7:17 pmlegislation and legislatures, political partiesDerek Muller

The bulk of the analysis in Anderson v. Griswold, which held that Donald Trump can appear on the primary ballot in Colorado, has been a matter I’ve been puzzling this weekend. Most of the opinion is not essential to… Continue reading

“The hidden biases at play in the U.S. Senate; People of color get significantly less representation than White voters. And that’s not the only way the Senate is skewed.”

November 17, 2023, 11:55 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Deep dive at WaPo: The result of the country’s evolution has been a Senate that suffers from three fundamental imbalances, according to a Washington Post data analysis of population growth, demographic changes and shifts in voting patterns. First, the disparities… Continue reading

“Democrats Plan to Spend Millions to Weaken Republican Supermajorities”

November 14, 2023, 7:15 amlegislation and legislatures, redistrictingRick Hasen

NYT: Democrats are planning to spend millions of dollars next year on just a few state legislative elections in Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky and Wisconsin — states where they have little to no chance of winning control of a chamber.… Continue reading

Mike Johnson Podcast on June 7, 2022 Defended Extreme Version of the Independent State Legislature Theory to Justify Objecting to 2020 Vote Count favoring Joe Biden; Supreme Court Definitively Rejected This Theory Last June

October 26, 2023, 1:48 pmelection subversion risk, legislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

You can listen here. This is the version of the theory that the U.S. Supreme Court definitively rejected in last term’s Moore v. Harper case.

“The Supreme Court Summons the Ghosts of Bush v. Gore: How Moore v. Harper Haunts State and Federal Constitutional Interpretation of Election Laws”

October 24, 2023, 4:58 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Scott Kafker and Simon Jacobs have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Wake Forest Law Review). Here is the abstract: There is a dangerous lack of clarity in the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moore v. Harper, which held that… Continue reading