Category Archives: election law and constitutional law

Derek Muller’s “The Democracy Ratchet”

July 9, 2018, 4:41 pmelection law and constitutional law, voting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Available on SSRN. From the abstract: Litigants seeking to lift burdens on the right to vote and judges adjudicating these claims have an unremarkable problem—what is the benchmark for measuring the nature of these burdens? Legal theories abound for… Continue reading

5th Circuit ID ruling … and the Texas redistricting case.

April 27, 2018, 5:02 pmelection administration, election law and constitutional law, redistricting, voter id, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Earlier today, Rick noted the 5th Circuit’s opinion on Texas’s voter ID law. I agree with much of his critique of the court’s resolution of the section 3(c) preclearance issue. In my post on the Texas redistricting cases earlier… Continue reading

NC Litigation Over Legislative Changes to Board of Elections

January 5, 2017, 8:55 amchicanery, election administration, election law and constitutional lawRichard Pildes

Yesterday, as this blog noted, Governor Cooper filed his brief in his effort to block the last-minute changes the North Carolina legislature made to abolish the existing state board of elections and replace it with a newly configured one.… Continue reading

“Congressional Research Service Issues Revised Guidance on the Foreign Emoluments Clause”

December 1, 2016, 5:25 amconflict of interest laws, election law and constitutional lawDan Tokaji

Seth Tillman blogs.

Symposium: “The Politics of State Constitutional Reform”

November 30, 2016, 1:52 pmelection law and constitutional lawDan Tokaji

From APSA’s Law and Courts Section, featuring short papers by J.H. Snider, Sandy Levinson, John Dinan, and Carol Weissert. Here’s a description: When analyzing the consequences of elections for the development of the U.S. Constitution, scholars concentrate on elections… Continue reading

The Future of the Party and Campaign Finance — A Response to Bob Bauer

September 22, 2015, 1:04 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, guest blogging election law scholarship, political partiesCampaign finance, political partiesHeather Gerken

(with Joey Fishkin, University of Texas Law School) Bob Bauer just offered a thoughtful and engaging commentary on our work and a new report by the Brennan Center, both focused on the relationship between the political parties and campaign finance.… Continue reading

Citizens United and the Future of the American Political Party

September 16, 2015, 11:22 amcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, political parties, UncategorizedCampaign finance, Citizens United, political partiesHeather Gerken

With Joey Fishkin, University of Texas Law School The Brennan Center has just released a new report on the future of campaign finance. There are going to be a lot of reports like these during the next few years as… Continue reading

An Academic Elegy

July 29, 2015, 10:53 amDepartment of Justice, election administration, election law and constitutional law, guest blogging election law scholarship, Uncategorized, Voting Rights ActSection 5, super statute, Voting Rights ActHeather Gerken

Guy-Urïel Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, have a new piece in the Iowa Law Review. I offered a commentary, here. Just to give you a flavor for the piece is, here’s a brief excerpt from my introduction, which offers a… Continue reading

Whose party is it anyway?

June 16, 2015, 1:43 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, political parties, UncategorizedCampaign finance, political parties, shadow partiesHeather Gerken

Coauthored with Joseph Fishkin, University of Texas Law School In yesterday’s post, we described how major functions once performed by official party organizations are migrating instead to what we call shadow parties—groups situated outside the official party apparatus, but clearly… Continue reading

A war within the Republican party?

June 15, 2015, 10:09 amcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, political parties, UncategorizedCampaign finance, political parties, shadow partiesHeather Gerken

Coauthored with Joseph Fishkin, University of Texas Law School A recent story perfectly embodied the central puzzle in a paper that we recently published in the Supreme Court Review. The story tells about the war between the Koch brothers… Continue reading

The Political Safeguards of Horizontal Federalism

March 20, 2015, 10:03 amelection law and constitutional law, guest blogging election law scholarship, political parties, political polarization, theory, Uncategorizedfederalism, PoliticsHeather Gerken

Over at Balkinization, I’ve been blogging (here, here, here, and here) about the benefits associated with spillovers, which occur when one state’s policies affect citizens of another state. Most of those arguments have to do… Continue reading

Is it Possible to Be In Favor of a Right-to-Vote Amendment but Against Amending the Constitution? Yes.

February 23, 2015, 8:38 amelection law and constitutional law, voter id, votingamendment, right to voteHeather Gerken

The DNC Executive Committee has just endorsed the idea that we should amend the Constitution to add a right to vote. I’m entirely in favor of a constitutional right to vote. But I’m against amending the Constitution to add it.… Continue reading

Justice Kennedy Channels John Hart Ely: Windsor’s Effort to Clear the Channels of Political Change

February 19, 2015, 5:11 amelection law and constitutional law, guest blogging election law scholarship, political equality, UncategorizedEly, federalism, First Amendment, WindsorHeather Gerken

For the last few days, I’ve been blogging about a new paper of mine on Windsor v. United States over on Balkinization (here, here, and here). I offer a new spin on it, one that invokes… Continue reading

The Critical Federalism Issue at the Heart of the Alabama Redistricting Cases

November 17, 2014, 11:18 pmelection law and constitutional law, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Justin here, with a thought on last week’s oral argument in two consolidated cases about Alabama’s redistricting process. There’s an issue lurking at the heart of the dispute that may be difficult to spot in the transcript. The cases concern… Continue reading