Monthly Archives: June 2022

“Pence-world’s final takedown of Trump’s Jan. 6 bid to remain in power revealed in his lawyer’s memo”

June 11, 2022, 2:56 pmelectoral collegeDerek Muller

Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan & Kyle Cheney have a three-page memo from Vice President Mike Pence’s attorney Greg Jacob on January 5, 2021. It appears he’s responding to a six-page memo from John Eastman (which followed a shorter memo),… Continue reading

How Social Media Contributes to the Fragmentation of the Political Parties

June 11, 2022, 10:14 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This NYT story describes AOC’s intervention in Democratic primaries to attempt to take down Democratic incumbents, including from within the NY Democratic delegation of which she is a part. The story’s emphasis is on these unusual internecine conflicts in the… Continue reading

How Journalists Wrestle With Covering Threats to Democracy

June 11, 2022, 6:13 amUncategorizedDemocratic backsliding; JournalsimGuy Charles

Blake Hounshell has this story for the NY Times on a new report by Protect Democracy that provides advice to journalists on how to cover democratic backsliding.

How and Why Justice Breyer (and Other Justices) Should Weigh in on the Independent-State-Legislature Notion Before Breyer Retires

June 11, 2022, 5:51 amUncategorizedIndependent State Legislature DoctrineGuy Charles

Vik Amar has this piece for Verdict. From the article: As I noted last week and major news outlets have also reported, the United States Supreme Court is poised next week to consider taking up the North Carolina partisan-gerrymandering… Continue reading

“Ginni Thomas pressed 29 Ariz. lawmakers to help overturn Trump’s defeat, emails show”

June 11, 2022, 5:44 amUncategorizedJanuary 6Guy Charles

Emma Brown of the Washington Post has this article on Ginni Thomas. From the article: Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona — 27 more than previously known —… Continue reading

President Zelensky Takes Questions for 1+ Hours From Journalists, CEOs

June 10, 2022, 12:41 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This week, I was honored to be part once again of the annual CEO Summit run by Jeff Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management. The Summit brings together major corporate leaders, former high-ranking… Continue reading

Public Attitudes Toward Proposed Changes to the Supreme Court

June 10, 2022, 12:04 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

A new study on the Supreme Court, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has been getting a fair amount of attention for its findings on the relationship over time between public opinion on major issues before… Continue reading

The (unsteady) origins of the Plenary Presidential Elector Selection Power Doctrine

June 10, 2022, 10:41 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

Rick P. has posted something that I’ve been puzzling over for a while, and I’m glad he did so: there’s a formal legal distinction between the “Legislature Thereof Clauses,” more popularly known as the “independent state legislature doctrine”… Continue reading

The Other Cause of January 6

June 10, 2022, 8:23 amUncategorizedJanuary 6, The Electoral CollegeGuy Charles

Cardozo Law Professor Kate Shaw in the Atlantic on the Electoral College. From the article: John Eastman. Rudy Giuliani. Donald Trump himself. These people all bear some responsibility for the events of January 6, 2021. But there is another… Continue reading

“U.S. Senate confirms Michigan’s Bagenstos to be Health and Human Services lawyer”

June 10, 2022, 7:44 amUncategorizedGuy Charles

Congrats Sam! Coverage of Sam’s latest accomplishment here.

Center for Political Accountability Issues Report on Corporations, Political Spending, and Democracy

June 10, 2022, 7:41 amUncategorizedCenter for Political Accountability; Corporations; Money & PoliticsGuy Charles

Bruce F. Freed and Karl J. Sandstrom have this post on the Center For Political Accountability’s report on corporations and democratic crisis. From the post: “Companies today face a moment of reckoning for their political spending. The crisis that confronts… Continue reading

“‘Trump Was at the Center’: Jan. 6 Hearing Lays Out Case in Vivid Detail”

June 10, 2022, 7:29 amUncategorizedJanuary 6Guy Charles

Luke Broadwater has this story for the NY Times. From the article: The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol opened a landmark set of hearings on Thursday by showing video of aide… Continue reading

“Order To Redo Louisiana Maps Temporarily Halted By Circuit Court”

June 10, 2022, 7:23 amUncategorizedRedistricting; Louisiana, Voting Rights Act; Section 2Guy Charles

The Fifth Circuit has issued a temporary stay of the district court opinion in Robinson v. Ardoin. Here is a short story by Bloomberg reporter Meghashyam Mali. This development is not surprising. The question for me is whether the plaintiffs… Continue reading

Live-Tweeting the First January 6 Committee Hearing

June 9, 2022, 4:52 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

You can follow along here on Twitter: Starting here with my live-tweeting the @January6thCmte hearings. My first point: the most important audience for these hearings are the 10+ Republican Senators who are poised to enact reforms to make the next… Continue reading