Logan Struther and Shana Kushner Gadarian have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We examine the role that mass perceptions of the Supreme Court’s institutional nature—particularly how “political” it is—plays in assessments of its legitimacy. In a … Continue reading
Category Archives: Supreme Court
Watch here: The Atlantic article is: Unlimited Donations to Candidates, Coming Soon? … Continue reading
I have written this piece for The Atlantic. It begins: During the George W. Bush administration, then–Solicitor General Paul Clement successfully defended the constitutionality of the 2002 McCain-Feingold law, which tightened electioneering and fundraising regulations. Can Clement now get traction … Continue reading
Chock full of election-law goodies. Among other pieces: Elizabeth Warren, Foreword (on corruption and faith in government)Jeffrey Clements, “But It Will Happen”: A Constitutional Amendment to Secure Political Equality in Election Spending and RepresentationViki Harrison, How One State Legislature Grappled … Continue reading
President Trump’s Speech this afternoon in which he said that the Administration would give up on efforts to add a citizenship question to the census is a victory for the rule of law. Many people were predicting that Trump would … Continue reading
I’m seeing a lot of hyperventilating on Twitter and elsewhere about how President Trump is about to start a constitutional crisis through an executive order that would mandate inclusion of the citizenship question on the census. If Trump actually ordered … Continue reading
Here, at the Public Discourse. … Continue reading
Joey Fishkin: So that leaves what I’d call the Evenwel Gambit: fess up, selectively, to Real Reason 2. Claim that you want to add the citizenship question to the Census in order to enable the CVAP-based drawing of district lines … Continue reading
I thought I’d pull together some thoughts on the issue of whether the Trump Administration will try again to add a citizenship question to the census, after sharing some earlier thoughts across this blog, to NPR, and at Slate. The … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Rebecca Green, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: The Rucho decision is hard to get your head around. Plaintiffs presented two clean cases with clear “smoking guns”: partisan gerrymanders in which legislators … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Moon Duchin, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Justice Kagan’s dissent in Rucho states in its opening paragraphs: “The majority’s abdication comes just when courts across the country, including those below, have … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Guy Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: One would be hard-pressed to find a more hackneyed Supreme Court opinion than Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion in Rucho. It … Continue reading
Washington Post: Trump was furious and thought the Commerce Department and the Justice Department — which has been arguing the case — had given up the fight too easily. He complained about Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.,who he said … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Michael Morley, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Rucho v. Common Causepresents competing judicial conceptions of American voters. Justice Kagan’s dissent encourages courts to employ … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Mike Parsons, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: In holding that partisan gerrymandering claims are not “resolvable according to legal principles” and are “therefore beyond [federal] courts’ jurisdiction,” Chief Justice … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Justin Levitt, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Last Thursday’s Rucho majority opinion brought many indignities. The shadowboxing with strawmen, in the form of proportionality claims no litigant put forward. The … Continue reading
Linda in the NYT: But first, the census case. I’ve been obsessed with imagining whatever dark night of the soul preceded the chief justice’s last-minute decision to shift course and reject the administration’s position.I readily admit that I have no … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Rick Pildes, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Now that the Supreme Court’s decision means that limits on partisan gerrymandering will have to come from venues such as Independent Redistricting Commissions (IRC) … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Keith Gaddie, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Felix Frankfurter called redistricting a “political thicket” which the federal courts would do well to avoid. And, when the court did dive into … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Wendy Tam Cho, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: We have been focused for some time on the Supreme Court’s role in regulating partisan gerrymandering. Now that we know the Supreme Court … Continue reading
It is undeniably good news that the Trump Administration decided to abandon the citizenship question in the face of evidence that it would depress turnout especially among those with noncitizens in a household and in light of the Supreme Court’s … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Sam Issacharoff, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: The 33-year search for judicial standards in partisan gerrymandering cases came to a crashing conclusion this Term. As Justice Kagan noted in … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Franita Tolson, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: In Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court held that a partisan gerrymandering claim presented a nonjusticiable political question because of the lack of … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Bruce Cain, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Given all the various ways that the Republicans have gamed election rules in recent years to stay in power, I fully understand … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Nick Stephanopoulos, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Both gerrymandering cases the Court decided this term—Rucho v. Common Cause out of North Carolina, and Lamone v. Benisek out of Maryland—began … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Deborah Hellman, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Last week’s decision in Rucho v. Common Cause rests on the claim that the Supreme Court cannot determine when districting is unfair because … Continue reading
David Gans for Take Care. … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Joey Fishkin, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: When I teach Rucho, I expect it will pair well with Colegrove v. Green, the long-overruled 1946 case in which a closely divided … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Ned Foley, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: Partisan gerrymandering should be unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court has ruled otherwise. Anger at Chief Justice Roberts for this 5-4 decision is … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Michael Solimine, part of the symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering after Rucho: A 5-4 majority of the United States Supreme Court in Common Cause v. Rucho held that challenges to partisan gerrymandering are “political … Continue reading
Reuters reports. … Continue reading
See this post at the LSE US Centre. … Continue reading
Others have made this point, but I wanted to flag this gratuitous and unsupported impugning of district court judge Furman in the census case. Thomas painted Furman as a conspiracy theorist in his partial dissent (joined by Gorsuch and Kavanaugh): … Continue reading
Here at Howard. … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Travis Crum: In Rucho v. Common Cause, the conservatives on the Supreme Court finally prevailed on their decades-long effort to declare partisan gerrymandering a non-justiciable political question. Rather than add to the legion … Continue reading
I have written this oped for the New York Times. It begins: The Supreme Court decision on Thursday in Rucho v. Common Cause purports to take federal courts out of the business of policingpartisan gerrymanders and leave the issue for states to handle. … Continue reading
Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent for WaPo. … Continue reading
Sam Wang blogs. … Continue reading
I indicated in my Slate piece that this is not over, and here’s more proof: Seems totally ridiculous that our government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census, in … Continue reading
The census decision is coming tomorrow from the Supreme Court. Most likely in my view is a 5-4 decision upholding the inclusion of the citizenship question, without addressing equal protection issue. Alito (if he writes) could include dicta to try … Continue reading
From the letter: First, the Solicitor General’s request would require this Court to render an improper advisory opinion on issues that have not been briefed or argued before this Court, relating to cases that are not before this Court, based … Continue reading
It’s always possible that the census case gets remanded and put off, given all the machinations. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: The government’s conduct in the pending Supreme Court case about adding a citizenship question to the census has gone from indefensible to outrageous. In the case, which is likely to be … Continue reading
This order (via Lawrence Hurley) means that the district court can consider the new Hofeller evidence to determine whether it shows the government acted with racially discriminatory intent in including the citizenship question on the census. And then the case … Continue reading
Read it here. … Continue reading
Ronald Brownstein for CNN: But on cases affecting the core electoral interests of the two parties — like the decision impending this week on whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census — Roberts has … Continue reading
Read it here. … Continue reading
From today’s order: This Court previously concluded that the Secretary’s articulated reason for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census—to improve Voting Rights Act (VRA) enforcement— was a pretext. ECF No. 154 at 108. However, the Court held that … Continue reading
Hansi Lo Wang: NEW: The 4th Circuit has set June 24 as the deadline for Trump admin to respond to request by @MALDEF @AAAJ_AAJC to send #CitizenshipQuestion lawsuits in Maryland back to the trial court, where U.S. District Judge George … Continue reading
Rick is otherwise engaged at the moment, so I thought I’d send word: four opinions from SCOTUS this morning, but not the Census or redistricting cases. More opinions coming at 10am ET tomorrow. … Continue reading