A discussion on Twitter with Jamal Greene. (Note that the post below about joining the Commission is from Rick Pildes—there has been some confusion.) … Continue reading
Category Archives: Supreme Court
WSJ: A Supreme Court decision that threw out the fraud convictions of two political aides to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is rippling through other white-collar cases, possibly buttressing appeals by other defendants who say federal prosecutors have become too aggressive … Continue reading
John Kruzel for The Hill: The Supreme Court’s most conservative justices are signaling an interest in issues closely associated with former President Trump, from rules on social media platforms to how elections are governed. Justice Clarence Thomas this week opined on how Twitter might … Continue reading
Mark Sherman for AP: Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine law school, said the outcome is hard to predict. “Many of the things that the bill does are in line with what other … Continue reading
Joan Biskupic for CNN: Georgia’s voter restrictions were dashed into law Thursday by Republicans shaken over recent election losses and lies about fraud from former President Donald Trump, yet the measures also developed against a backdrop of US Supreme Court decisions hollowing out federal … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog on the argument calendar: Americans for Prosperity v. Becerra and Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra (consolidated for one hour of oral argument on April 26): Whether a California policy that requires charities to disclose the names and addresses of their major … Continue reading
Order list. … Continue reading
David Gans for The Atlantic … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
I just finished listening to the two-hour argument in the Brnovich voting rights case. For background on what’s at stake and where I think things are, see this SCOTUSBlog post. Oral argument went as I expected. There was little support … Continue reading
Nina Totenberg for NPR: The potential to render the Voting Rights Act nearly a dead letterIn fact, 33 states have “introduced, refiled, or carried over more than 165 restrictive laws this year,” says Myrna Pérez, director of the Voting Rights … Continue reading
Here is a guest post from Travis Crum of Wash U: The Supreme Court will soon hear oral argument in Brnovich v. DNC, a major voting rights case. As relevant here, the case concerns an Arizona ballot-collection law that the … Continue reading
Robert Barnes WaPo preview of the Brnovich argument. … Continue reading
Tribe in The Hill: Justice Thomas’s solo dissent is another matter altogether. The question at hand concerned only the relationship between a state legislature and the state constitution as construed by the state’s highest court. But Thomas seized the opportunity … Continue reading
John Fritze for USA Today. … Continue reading
I have written this analysis for SCOTUSBlog. It begins: Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee is a strange voting rights case. Rather than the typical case, in which a voting rights group representing minority voters sues a state or locality for engaging … Continue reading
From the letter: The Department has now concluded that, although it does not disagree with the conclusion in that brief that neither Arizona measure violates Section 2’s results test, the Department does not adhere to the framework for application of … Continue reading
Very much looking forward to reading this from Jim Gardner: For many years, the dominant view among American election law scholars has been that the Supreme Court’s constitutional jurisprudence of democratic practice got off to a promising start during the … Continue reading
WaPo: As expected, the Supreme Court refused Monday to fast-track a batch of challenges to the presidential election filed by President Trump and his allies.The rejections came without comment or noted dissent, and were formal notifications of what already had become … Continue reading
The Court’s order list is here. Here’s an earlier explanation from the Philanthropy Roundtable: For those following donor-privacy issues, there was an important development in the case known as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra in mid-December. The current status of this litigation is … Continue reading
Can’t make this stuff up: ⚖️NEW: For the second time in two days, Trump files a SCOTUS petition re: Biden's win in WISCONSIN. Trump campaign notes that the suit's dismissal in federal appeals court was not based on the merits … Continue reading
The opposition also says this: The Trump Campaign threatens that “if this matter is not timely resolved, not only Petitioner, but the Nation as a whole may suffer injury from the resulting confusion.” Motion at 5. But it is the … Continue reading
Derek at Law & Liberty: The Electoral College is a designedly decentralized process for the selection of the President of the United States. Each State may choose its presidential electors in the manner that the legislature deems appropriate.The State of … Continue reading
John Eastman should be ashamed of this petition for cert and motion to expedite. I won’t go through all of the ridiculous things here, but this is an attempt to challenge PA Supreme Court cases in October and mid-November. There … Continue reading
In an unsigned (per curiam) order over 3 dissents, the Supreme Court has bounced a case back to a lower court that challenged a Trump Administration plan to exclude certain non-citizens from the census count used to apportion seats among … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: A long-shot legal effort relying on conspiracy theories and inaccurate analyses to argue President Donald Trump actually won Michigan included additional blatantly false information in a new filing with the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The legal team, including attorney Sidney Powell, told the … Continue reading
Philanthropy Roundtable: For those following donor-privacy issues, there was an important development in the case known as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra in mid-December. The current status of this litigation is that the plaintiffs have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case … Continue reading
David Lat blogs on the “sort of” question. … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: State officials are disputing a report on Antrim County’s voting equipment — signed by a consultant who confused Michigan and Minnesota voting districts in an earlier election analysis — that says the county’s equipment “is intentionally and purposefully designed with … Continue reading
This is great news. No noted, dissents, and Justice Gorsuch did not participate (perhaps he dealt with the case earlier on the 10th Circuit). In my book Election Meltdown, I talked about how the trial in the case was the … Continue reading
Jay Willis in The Atlantic. … Continue reading
The following is a guest post by Ned Foley, on the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore: On the evening before the twentieth anniversary of Bush v. Gore, one of the most infamous Supreme Court … Continue reading
Howard Bashman: Thanks to everyone who has taken time to respond to my tweet from last night seeking views on whether yesterday evening’s U.S. Supreme Court order was unanimous in rejecting Texas’ effort to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election or was instead … Continue reading
The Supreme Court dismissed Texas’s bill of complaint in the latest high-profile case pushed by Trump allies in an attempt to overturn the results of the election. The Court did not issue an accompanying opinion. [Addendum: The court did say … Continue reading
Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog: Texas’ attempt to bring an original action challenging the election results in four states is not a serious legal claim in a legitimate procedural posture, for reasons that many people have already given and that I will not … Continue reading
NYT: In blistering language denouncing Republican efforts to subvert the election, the attorneys general for Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the victories in those states by President-elect Joseph … Continue reading
WaPo: With his legal options dwindling and time running out before a key electoral college deadline, President Trump on Thursday ramped up pressure on the Supreme Court to help overturn Joe Biden’s victory, gaining the support of more than 100 … Continue reading
WaPo: A majority of House Republicans have signed onto an amicus brief in a Texas lawsuit seeking unprecedented judicial intervention in disallowing millions of votes and the election results from four key swing states that went for President-elect Joe Biden.Rep. … Continue reading
Read it here. … Continue reading
From the filing: Since Election Day, State and Federal courts throughout the country have been flooded with frivolous lawsuits aimed at disenfranchising large swaths of voters and undermining the legitimacy of the election. The State of Texas has now added … Continue reading
The Court in Carney v. Adams found that the plaintiff lacked standing because he was not ready and able to serve as a judge. … Continue reading
Lisa Manheim in WaPo: The litigation is legally incoherent, factually untethered and based on theories of remedy that fundamentally misunderstand the electoral process. At the core, it is an uninspired retread of the many state-level claims that already have imploded since Nov. … Continue reading
The Justices will not be amused: So the John Eastman brief for Trump was ghost-written by the guy who drafted Texas's brief that the Eastman brief supports?Oh my.The Supreme Court will not appreciate the sock-puppetry, especially in a case with … Continue reading
Ilya Somin at Volokh: Yesterday, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit essentially asking the Supreme Court to reverse the outcome of the presidential election in four key swing states—Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, thereby potentially giving Donald Trump a … Continue reading
I raise this as a question, as I am not an expert in judicial ethics. But I did think (and argued) that Justice Barrett should recuse in any Trump-related election litigation. Trump was not a party in the ridiculous Kelly … Continue reading
Here’s the docket. [corrected link] Trump tweeted that he’s intervened and sought to distance himself from the unanimous loss at the Supreme Court yesterday by Rep. Kelly. I explained here and to the NY Times why the Texas lawsuit will … Continue reading
Adam Liptak for the NYT: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a long-shot request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the state, delivering an unmistakable rebuke to President Trump in the forum on which he … Continue reading
Justice Alito referred it to the whole Court. Earlier: Perhaps the Dumbest Argument Ever Made in Emergency Petition to the Supreme Court Appears in Pennsylvania Election Case Anyone who thought that the Supreme Court was going to save Trump in … Continue reading
I may need to take back what I said about Rep. Kelly’s PA suit being the dumbest case I’ve ever seen filed on an emergency basis at the Supreme Court. This new one from the indicted Texas AG Ken Paxton … Continue reading
You can find the brief here. It begins: Petitioners ask this Court to undertake one of the most dramatic, disruptiveinvocations of judicial power in the history of the Republic. No court has ever issued an order nullifying a governor’s certification … Continue reading