Category Archives: Supreme Court

“The 2020 Electoral End Game — Finding a Peaceful Transition of Power in a Political Question World”

August 10, 2020, 7:42 amElection Meltdown, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Ross Martin has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The playing field for 2020 election disputes is not level because the incumbent-candidate is already in office. The incumbent-candidate is already asserting election irregularities that could leave the… Continue reading

“Supreme Court Signals Federal Judiciary Won’t Mediate Fights Over Voting and Virus; High court’s conservative majority sees scant constitutional authority to weigh in on state elections”

August 2, 2020, 8:24 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Jess Bravin for the WSJ: If the coronavirus is pitting nervous voters against state election officials, don’t expect the federal courts to solve their problem.That is the message from a string of Supreme Court orders since April, which saw the… Continue reading

“The Supreme Court’s Pro-Partisanship Turn”

July 27, 2020, 7:29 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The Georgetown Law Journal Online has published the final version of my article, The Supreme Court’s Pro-Partisanship Turn. Here is the abstract: The United States Supreme Court’s conservative majority has taken the Court’s election jurisprudence on a pro-partisanship turn, which… Continue reading

“As Concerns About Voting Build, The Supreme Court Refuses To Step In”

July 25, 2020, 1:21 pmSupreme Court, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Emmet Witkovsky-Eldred and Nina Totenberg for NPR: Voting rights advocates are batting 0-4 at the U.S. Supreme Court so far this year. A record number of election-related lawsuits are piling up in courts around the country as concerns mount… Continue reading

Watch Archived Video of Meaty and Interesting July 23 Conversation: 10th Annual UCI Law Supreme Court Term in Review

July 24, 2020, 7:44 amSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Watch here: This lively discussion reviewed the Supreme Court’s key cases decided in the October 2019 term, drawing a large audience for the virtual presentation, recorded via Zoom. Moderated by Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science Richard Hasen… Continue reading

Michigan COVID Initiative Case Ends with a Whimper, Withdrawn at SCOTUS, Dismissed Below

July 23, 2020, 8:51 pmdirect democracy, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Michigan withdraws its request for emergency relief at the Supreme Court after plaintiffs dismiss their case with prejudice. Why? It appears that the plaintiffs inadvertently misrepresented how much signature gathering they had been able to do.

Big (Quixotic?) Push to Get Supreme Court to Hold that Congress Has the Constitutional Power to Outlaw Super PACs

July 22, 2020, 9:34 pmcampaign finance, Plutocrats United, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The cert petition in Lieu v. FEC is designed to get the Supreme Court to address an issue addressed by the D.C. Circuit in the earlier SpeechNow case but never addressed by the Supreme Court: is it constitutional for Congress… Continue reading

“Trump lied to the Supreme Court. His new census order proves it.”

July 22, 2020, 2:17 pmcensus litigation, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

New Leah Litman: Beyond that rather glaring defect, however, the new executive order also confirms the theory behind the lawsuits challenging the administration’s earlier attempt to add a citizenship question to the census. When the administration attempted to do that,… Continue reading

“A More Liberal Supreme Court? Not When It Comes to Voting Rights”

July 18, 2020, 5:18 pmSupreme Court, votingRick Hasen

Adam Liptak deep dive for the NYT: For the fourth time since April, the Supreme Court this week made it harder for Americans to vote. The ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent, was part of “a trend of condoning… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court, on Divided Vote, Refuses to Vacate Stay in Florida Felon Reenfranchisement Case, Meaning Potentially Hundreds of Thousands of Former Felons Reenfranchised by Florida Voters Won’t Get to Vote in November

July 16, 2020, 10:37 amcourt decisions, felon voting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

With at least three of the Court’s four liberal Justices dissenting, the Supreme Court refused to intervene in a case involving Florida felon voting rights, with big implications for voting in November. The procedural path of this case is complex,… Continue reading

Florida Files Opposition at Supreme Court in Felon Reenfranchisement Case

July 14, 2020, 1:27 pmfelon voting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The brief relies heavily on the question of timing. So both sides are pushing the Purcell Principle to support their position in this case. The brief is also remarkably dismissive of the rights of felons, saying they are not qualified… Continue reading

“Bostock: Were the liberal justices namudnoed?”

July 13, 2020, 7:14 amSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Jason Mazzone at Balikinization, raising exactly a point I’d been pondering: namudno (verb): to persuade one’s colleagues (esp. on a court) to sign onto an opinion with broader implications than they perceive and then accuse them of backtracking when they… Continue reading

Paul Smith and Mark Gaber: “Florida Voters Ask Supreme Court to Lift Stay”

July 13, 2020, 7:09 amfelon voting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Paul Smith and Mark Gaber of the Campaign Legal Center: In a one-line decision issued on July 1, the en banc Eleventh Circuit stayed a district court order enjoining Florida’s “pay-to-vote” system for… Continue reading