Category Archives: Supreme Court

My New One at Slate on How Justice Souter Wanted to Warn in Campaign Finance Opinion About the Danger of “Plutocracy” until Justice O’Connor Shut Him Down

May 30, 2023, 7:46 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I have written this piece at Slate. It begins: More than 20 years ago, then-Supreme Court Justice David Souter tried to warn that big money in politics risked turning United States officials into tools of an emerging “plutocracy.” We now… Continue reading

Justice Stevens (or Someone Else) Drafted a Proposed Remand Order in Bush v. Gore That Would Have Kept the Chances for a Recount Alive

May 30, 2023, 7:39 amBush v. Gore reflections, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Joan Biskupic and Derek Muller have covered the most important news I saw in Justice Stevens’ Bush v. Gore files: that the Article II (independent state legislature theory) emanated from Justice O’Connor, not Chief Justice Rehnquist, and that Justice O’Connor… Continue reading

John Eastman Offers Warped View of 2020 Election, the January 6 “incursion into the Capitol,” and His Attempt to Subvert Election, in Supreme Court Brief Seeking to Erase District Court Case Finding He and Trump Likely Participated in a Crime

May 28, 2023, 12:26 pmelection subversion risk, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Via Tierney Sneed at CNN, comes this cert. petition before the Supreme Court in No. 22-1138. Eastman is asking for a Munsingwear vacatur of a federal district court ruling, which would wipe that case off the books on grounds it… Continue reading

The Curious Failure to Cite to Rehnquist’s Bush v. Gore Concurrence and the Independent State Legislature Theory in 2004 Salazar Case; The Issue Was Clear to Justice Stevens’ Then-Clerk (and Now-CA Supreme Court Justice) Leondra Kruger

May 25, 2023, 5:01 pmBush v. Gore reflections, legislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

As the independent state legislature theory remains in limbo in Moore v. Harper, I’ve thought back on Chief Justice Rehnquist’s dissent from denial of cert in Colorado General Assembly v. Salazar (2004) (a case that few other than Derek Muller… Continue reading

ELB Book Corner: Steve Vladeck: “How the Shadow Docket Came Full Circle in the 2022 Redistricting Cases”

May 17, 2023, 7:00 amELB Book Corner, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I am pleased to welcome to ELB Book Corner Steve Vladeck, author of the new book, The Shadow Docket. Here is the last of three posts: After introducing Purcell and how the Court used it inconsistently in the… Continue reading

ELB Book Corner: Steve Vladeck: “Purcell and the Partisan Valence of the Supreme Court’s 2020 Election Cases”

May 16, 2023, 7:00 amELB Book Corner, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I am pleased to welcome to ELB Book Corner Steve Vladeck, author of the new book, The Shadow Docket. Here is the second of three posts: Yesterday’s post introduced the discussion of election cases in my new book… Continue reading

Media roundup of the appeal in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP

May 16, 2023, 4:42 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

Bloomberg CNN New York Times Politico SCOTUSblog Washington Post

Supreme Court’s skepticism of balancing tests in California pork case (and what it might say for the Anderson-Burdick framework)

May 16, 2023, 4:39 amSupreme CourtDerek Muller

The Supreme Court issued a decision in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, holding that California may regulate sale of pork products in state even if it may affect interstate commerce. Not much of an election law angle. One… Continue reading

ELB Book Corner: Steve Vladeck: “The Most Troubling Side of the Shadow Docket”

May 15, 2023, 7:00 amELB Book Corner, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I am pleased to welcome to ELB Book Corner Steve Vladeck, author of the new book, The Shadow Docket. Here is the first of three posts: The subtitle of my new book on the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket,”… Continue reading

Shelby County invoked multiple times in Supreme Court’s opinion on California pork regulation

May 15, 2023, 4:38 amSupreme CourtDerek Muller

It’s a case about the dormant commerce clause and California’s power to prohibit the in-state sale of pork that comes from conditions California deems cruel. But the Supreme Court’s decision last week in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross had… Continue reading

“Supreme Court overturns public-corruption conviction of Cuomo aide”

May 11, 2023, 12:00 pmbribery, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

WaPo: The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the 2018 conviction of a former aide to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), once again expressing skepticism of the ways federal prosecutors combat public corruption and influence peddling. The justices took… Continue reading

United States Files Letter in Supreme Court Saying that Moore v. Harper Should Be Dismissed as Moot (This is the “Independent State Legislature” Case)

May 11, 2023, 9:45 amlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Brief for United States. Update: Common Cause takes the position the case is not moot and the Supreme Court can still decide it. It adds: “Although the Court has pending before it another petition for certiorari raising a similar question… Continue reading

Justice Souter Fought to Avoid Applying “Exacting Scrutiny” to Contribution Limits in McConnell Case

May 10, 2023, 7:40 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Jimmy Hoover for the National Law Journal, examining the Stevens papers: Among the many insights from Stevens’ papers are the once-private internal court memos in which justices offer suggestions or critiques of each other’s draft opinions in particular cases. The… Continue reading

Richard Bernstein: Time to Unanimously Dismiss Moore v. Harper on Jurisdictional Grounds

May 7, 2023, 6:23 pmlegislation and legislatures, redistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Richard Bernstein, who wrote an amicus brief supporting affirmance in Moore v. Harper but who expresses his own views here: Whatever your view of the Elections Clause issues in Moore v. Harper, the… Continue reading

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