Category Archives: Supreme Court

My New One at Slate on the Supreme Court Potentially Killing the Remaining Pillar of the Voting Rights Act: “The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term”

August 4, 2025, 7:27 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Reading the tea leaves from cryptic Supreme Court orders can be perilous business because the justices are not bound by the questions they ask at oral argument, the offhand comments they… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court, in Order Asking for Additional Briefing in Louisiana Voting Case, Appears to Put the Constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act into Question

August 1, 2025, 2:28 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The Supreme Court just issued this order: Louisiana had to create that second majority-minority district in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act, as it had been found to face Section 2 VRA liability for not creating that… Continue reading

“How the Supreme Court enabled the Texas-California redistricting fight”

August 1, 2025, 8:16 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Bob Egelko for the SF Chronicle.

League of Women Voters, ACLU and Rutherford Institute File Amicus Brief Supporting Republican Representative Bost’s Standing to Sue over Accepting Ballots Arriving After Election Day

July 29, 2025, 1:10 pmcampaigns, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

They disagree on the merits of Bost’s position, but this filing at the Supreme Court supporting standing for Rep. Bost is still notable. See also this interesting amicus brief from Professor Michael Morley.

“Montana Initiative to File Bold Blueprint to Challenge Citizens United; New Amendment Would Use Corporate Law to Ban Political Spending”

July 28, 2025, 2:47 pmcampaign finance, Plutocrats United, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Press release via email: The Transparent Election Initiative, a Montana organization, today released the public draft of a historic constitutional amendment that takes direct aim at Citizens United—and the corporate and dark money it unleashed into Montana’s politics. The amendment… Continue reading

Breaking: 8th Circuit, Following Earlier Decision Holding Private Plaintiffs Cannot Sue to Enforce Section 2 of Voting Rights Act, Now Says No Right to Sue under Voter Assistance Provisions Either [Corrected]

July 28, 2025, 8:28 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Via Hansi Lo Wang comes this order finding no private right of action under section 208 of the VRA. The fate of this case will likely follow the fate of what the Supreme Court will do with the Section 2 … Continue reading

Waiting for Callais

July 25, 2025, 12:29 pmredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActTravis Crum

Earlier today, Rick Pildes flagged the Court’s inexplicable month-long delay in issuing a re-argument order in Louisiana v. Callais, last Term’s—and now next Term’s—major Shaw case. I agree with Pildes’s concerns and want to add a few points. First, to… Continue reading

Toobin: “The Line Trump Crossed by Accusing Obama of Treason”

July 25, 2025, 5:27 amDepartment of Justice, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Jeffrey Toobin in NYT on President Trump’s assertion that former President Obama engaged in “treason” in connection with the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election: President Trump’s history of intemperate remarks has earned him a perverse kind… Continue reading

“Justice Kagan Urges Supreme Court to Explain Itself in Emergency Decisions”

July 25, 2025, 5:07 amSupreme CourtDan Tokaji

NYT: Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday that the Supreme Court was shortchanging the public and lower court judges by failing to explain its reasoning in rulings on cases that come before the court on an emergency basis, including challenges… Continue reading

Crum: “The Curiously Minor Role of Minor v. Happersett”

July 24, 2025, 1:03 pm19th Amendment, election law and constitutional law, Supreme CourtTravis Crum

Along with my co-authors (Professor Susan Appleton and Hannah Keidan (WashU Law ’25)), I have posted this draft on SSRN. It is part of a symposium that will be published later this summer in the Washington University Law Review. It… Continue reading

Supreme Court Puts on Hold Eighth Circuit Order that Would Have Ended Private Enforcement of the Voting Rights Act in Seven States, But Three Justices Appear Ready to Kill Section 2 Nationally

July 24, 2025, 11:59 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Via Steve Vladeck comes this Supreme Court order, over the dissents of Justices Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas, of the Eighth Circuit case raising the question whether private plaintiffs have the right to sue under Section 2 of the Voting… Continue reading

“Why Can Trump Sue You, But You Can’t Sue Him?”

July 22, 2025, 4:40 amauthoritarian threats in US, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Ankush Khardori in Politico Magazine: The Supreme Court has been steadily building up an extraordinary level of immunity for presidents, on both civil and criminal fronts. And Trump has benefited from — and exploited — the law like no… Continue reading

“The Court’s Liberals Are Trying to Tell Americans Something”

July 18, 2025, 5:36 amauthoritarian threats in US, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Aziz Huq in The Atlantic: In recent Supreme Court terms, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson have issued defiant dissents that push back against a seemingly endless cascade of conservative opinions. The three tend to take… Continue reading