Category Archives: Supreme Court

Thoughts on Brnovich Oral Argument: Few Surprises, and Voting Rights Plaintiffs Are Likely to Lose (But Exactly How Remains Unclear)

March 2, 2021, 9:16 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

“High Noon For The Future Of The Voting Rights Act At The Supreme Court”

March 2, 2021, 6:06 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

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

Travis Crum: “Rethinking the Race or Party Question in Brnovich”

March 1, 2021, 3:11 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

“Supreme Court to again consider federal protections for minority voters”

February 28, 2021, 7:54 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Robert Barnes WaPo preview of the Brnovich argument.

Larry Tribe Calls Out Justice Thomas’s Trolling of Heather Gerken on Election Fraud in Recent Dissent

February 25, 2021, 6:46 amfraudulent fraud squad, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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

“Dissent by Justice Thomas in election case draws fire for revisiting baseless Trump fraud claims”

February 22, 2021, 3:36 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

John Fritze for USA Today.

“A partisan battle in an overreach of a case”: Minority voters are caught between the political parties at the Supreme Court, with the Voting Rights Act hanging in the balance (My SCOTUSBlog Preview of Brnovich)

February 22, 2021, 8:02 ampolitical parties, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

Biden Administration Reverses Position Before Supreme Court in Arizona Voting Rights Act Case (Brnovich), But Does Not Say Plaintiffs Should Win

February 16, 2021, 5:05 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

“The Illiberalization of American Election Law: A Study in Democratic Deconsolidation”

January 29, 2021, 11:45 amElection Meltdown, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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

“Supreme Court won’t fast-track Trump challenges to election results”

January 11, 2021, 8:03 amfraudulent fraud squad, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case About Disclosure of Funders to Certain Nonprofit Organizations, With Implications That Could Lead Courts to Strike Some Campaign Finance Disclosure Laws

January 8, 2021, 3:48 pmcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

Trump Campaign Files Yet Another Quixotic Supreme Court Petition Seeking to Overturn Election Results from Wisconsin, Misspelling “Laches”

December 31, 2020, 7:13 amfraudulent fraud squad, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

Pennsylvania, Opposing Trump Effort to Expedite Consideration of One of Its Bonkers Election Challenges, Calls Argument About Trump’s Delay “Profoundly Incoherent”

December 31, 2020, 7:11 amfraudulent fraud squad, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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 Muller Lays Out THE Conservative Case Against Texas’s Bizarre Suit to Steal the Election for Trump at the Supreme Court

December 21, 2020, 1:51 pmchicanery, Election Meltdown, electoral college, fraudulent fraud squad, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

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

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