Category Archives: Supreme Court

My New One at Slate: “There’s a Time Bomb in Progressives’ Big Supreme Court Voting Case Win”

June 27, 2023, 10:17 amlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: It is indeed a cause for celebration that the United States Supreme Court, on a 6-3 vote in Moore v. Harper, rejected an extreme version of the “independent state legislature”… Continue reading

Moore v. Harper vindicates Rehnquist’s opinion in Bush v. Gore

June 27, 2023, 8:46 amElections Clause, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

The top line takeaway of Moore v. Harper is this: the Supreme Court has slammed the door shut on the argument that the state constitution or state judiciary cannot constrain the state legislature exercising power under the Elections Clause. But… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court Decides Moore v. Harper, Rejecting Maximalist Version of Independent State Legislature Theory But Giving Federal Courts a Chance to Second Guess Some State Rulings as “Transgressing the Ordinary Bounds of Judicial Review”

June 27, 2023, 7:18 amlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

[This post has been updated.] You can find the ruling at this link. The United States Supreme Court, on a 6-3 vote, has adopted a compromise position on the meaning of the independent state legislature theory. The position of the… Continue reading

Plaintiffs in Milligan Litigation Want Alabama Legislature to Adopt Their Remedial Maps in Compliance with the Voting Rights Act

June 26, 2023, 2:17 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Read the letter.

“Ten years of a crippled Voting Rights Act: how states make it harder to vote”

June 26, 2023, 7:34 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Sam Levine and Kira Lerner for The Guardian: In 2013, the US supreme court gutted the pre-clearance requirement in a landmark case called Shelby county v Holder. In a 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the Voting… Continue reading

No Response to John Eastman Cert. Petition Seeking to Wipe Out District Court Finding that Eastman More Likely Than Not Engaged with Trump in Crime Related to 2020 Election

June 23, 2023, 7:33 amchicanery, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I blogged earlier about John Eastman arguing for the decision against him to be vacated on grounds it is moot. I wondered if a response would be filed by the Jan. 6 committee, which I think no longer exists. There… Continue reading

National Constitution Center Podcast: “Recapping Allen v. Milligan: The Court Upholds Section 2 of the VRA”

June 22, 2023, 3:43 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Listen: Earlier this month, the Supreme Court handed down a major voting rights decision in the Allen v. Milligan case. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and found that Alabama’s … Continue reading

About That Black’s Law Dictionary Definition of Facilities Cited by Justice Alito in His WSJ Defense of Not Reporting the Free Ride on the Private Plane of a Billionaire Litigant…

June 22, 2023, 1:58 pmconflict of interest laws, legislation and legislatures, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

In my earlier post on Justice Alito’s laughable defense that he did not have to report the free ride on the private plane because it was “hospitality … on …facilities” owned by a person, I noted that one of the… Continue reading

Justice Alito’s Bad Textualism Extends to His Mangling of Words to Justify Not Reporting a Seat on a Private Jet Paid for by a Billionaire Litigant

June 21, 2023, 7:54 pmconflict of interest laws, ethics investigations, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Years ago in conversation with an originalist and textualist, the person I was speaking to defended originalism and textualism as constraining judges. The counterexample on the right was Justice Alito voting his values. The idea is that if all judges… Continue reading

ELB Podcast 4:9: Charles, Katz, Pildes: The Future of the Voting Rights Act after Milligan

June 21, 2023, 6:56 amELB Podcast, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

New ELB Podcast: Why did two conservative justices on the Supreme Court join the Court’s liberals to save section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Allen v. Milligan? Will voting rights plaintiffs see more success in Section 2… Continue reading

The Supreme Court’s ICWA decision may offer insight into the Legislature Thereof Clauses and the Electoral Count Reform Act

June 19, 2023, 5:43 amelectoral college, legislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Haaland v. Brackeen regarding the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Hardly the stuff of election law. But two small parts of the opinion stood out to me. First, the… Continue reading

My New One at Slate: “There Are Still Two Major Legal Threats to the Voting Rights Act”

June 12, 2023, 7:51 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Last week’s voting rights decision in Allen v. Milligan was surprisingly good news: rather than hobble or destroy the existing protections for minority voters to elect their candidates of choice… Continue reading

The constitutional analysis in Allen v. Milligan

June 12, 2023, 7:06 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActDerek Muller

One argument raised by Alabama in its brief in Allen v. Milligan was that Section 2 is unconstitutional–at least, unconstitutional if Gingles were interpreted the way the trial court interpreted it. That prompted the bulk of concerned reaction in a… Continue reading

Did Justice Thomas lose the majority in Allen v. Milligan?

June 11, 2023, 5:07 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActDerek Muller

Let me offer something that may (?) be a bit (!) speculative (and which Jonathan Adler already hinted at elsewhere). To start, I can’t help but look back at some of the statements made during oral argument about how… Continue reading

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