Category Archives: Supreme Court

Brandon Johnson: “Election Aggrandizement”

August 2, 2023, 3:31 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Brandon Johnson, who begins as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska on August 14: The Supreme Court received praise for two election law decisions issued in the waning weeks of its… Continue reading

“Alabama Is Defying the Supreme Court on Voting Rights”

July 28, 2023, 8:59 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Atlantic: “In an echo of mid-century southern defiance of school desegregation, the Yellowhammer State’s Republican-controlled legislature defied the conservative-dominated Court’s directive to redraw its congressional map with an additional Black-majority district.”

“How Alabama could get away with defying the Supreme Court”

July 26, 2023, 9:55 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Ian Millhiser in Vox, concluding that the Alabama legislature’s “defiance [of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Allen v. Milligan] is unlikely to be tolerated by the courts,” but that “there is a risk that the Supreme Court will… Continue reading

CAP: “Supreme Court’s Decision in Moore v. Harper Is a Win for Democracy, But Some Questions Remain Unanswered”

July 24, 2023, 9:43 amlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Michael Sozan at Center for American Progress: “[E]ven though the Supreme Court jettisoned a sweeping version of the [independent state legislature] theory to the dustbin of history, the post-Moore v. Harper path is not without some degree of risk.… Continue reading

Now Available: Jacob Eisler’s “The Law of Freedom: The Supreme Court and Democracy”

July 24, 2023, 5:06 amelection law biz, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Jacob Eisler’s new book is out today. Here’s the description: The Supreme Court has been at the center of great upheavals in American democracy across the last seventy years. From the end of Jim Crow to the rise of wealth-dominated… Continue reading

“Illegal voting maps were used in some states in 2022. This legal idea allowed them”

July 19, 2023, 5:02 amelection administration, redistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Hansi Lo Wang has this extended NPR piece on the still-growing impact of Purcell v. Gonzalez (audio to be added late tomorrow afternoon). It includes an interview with Helen Purcell, who was Maricopa County’s top election official when the Supreme… Continue reading

“Is the Media Finally Waking Up to a New Kind of Supreme Court Coverage?”

July 17, 2023, 3:44 pmSupreme CourtDan Tokaji

Vanity Fair: “The job of the Supreme Court reporter has traditionally been to track cases, and translate the final opinions to readers. But this term, as the conservative supermajority ruled on hot-button issues including affirmative action, LGBTQ+ rights,… Continue reading

“Democrats to Press Supreme Court Ethics Rules Over G.O.P. Opposition”

July 17, 2023, 3:40 amSupreme CourtDan Tokaji

NYT: “Senate Democrats plan to push ahead this week with legislation imposing new ethics rules on the Supreme Court in the wake of disclosures about the justices’ travel and outside activities, despite blanket opposition by Republicans who claim the… Continue reading

“Alabama rushes to adopt new congressional map amid disagreement on what district should look like”

July 16, 2023, 10:51 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

AP: “The group of voters who sued the state and won before the Supreme Court have proposed the creation of a second district where Black residents are 50.5% of the population. But Alabama Republicans, who hold a lopsided majority… Continue reading

“Alabama Scrambles to Redraw Its Voting Map After a Supreme Court Surprise”

July 16, 2023, 4:15 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

NYT: Under orders from the Supreme Court to produce a voting map that no longer illegally dilutes the power of Black voters in Alabama, the state’s lawmakers are now facing a high-stakes scramble to come up with an acceptable… Continue reading

Supreme Court Sets Oral Argument in South Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case for October 11

July 14, 2023, 7:56 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Calendar.

“Democrats Try a Novel Tactic to Revive the Equal Rights Amendment”

July 13, 2023, 12:12 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

NYT: Democrats in Congress are making a fresh push for the nearly century-old Equal Rights Amendment to be enshrined in the Constitution, rallying around a creative legal theory in a bid to revive an amendment that would explicitly guarantee… Continue reading

AP Series on Supreme Court Ethics

July 12, 2023, 3:48 amSupreme CourtDan Tokaji

The A.P. has released a series of stories on the ethics practices of Supreme Court justices, relying on more than 100 public records requests to colleges and universities. (Disclosure: my university was among those that received a request.) You can… Continue reading

Social Choice Theory, the Independent State Legislature Theory, Insincere Voting, and the Missing Liberal Dissents in Moore v. Harper

July 11, 2023, 1:48 pmSupreme Court, theoryRick Hasen

As I have explained, although the Supreme Court in Moore v. Harper rejected the most extreme version of the independent state legislature theory, it endorsed another theory that amounts to a “time bomb:” It is indeed a cause for… Continue reading