Monthly Archives: March 2025

“The downballot roll-off effect in action”

March 4, 2025, 11:41 amrecall electionsRick Hasen

Joshua Spivak: The November 2024 election ballot in Alameda County saw an unusual occurrence: overlapping recalls of the Alameda district attorney and the Oakland mayor. Media coverage of these recalls portrayed those separate county and city contest results as being… Continue reading

“People Are Paying Millions to Dine With Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago”

March 4, 2025, 11:00 amcampaign finance, conflict of interest lawsRick Hasen

Wired: Guests are paying millions of dollars to dine and meet with President Donald Trump at special events held at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for… Continue reading

“Jail Voting Soars in Colorado After State Mandates Polling Places in County Lockups”

March 4, 2025, 8:33 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

New from Bolts.

“Justice Dept. to Review Election Tampering Conviction of Pro-Trump Clerk”

March 4, 2025, 7:35 amchicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: The Justice Department said on Monday that it would review the conviction of the former clerk of Mesa County, Colo., who was found guilty of state charges last summer of tampering with voting machines under her control in… Continue reading

“Democracy Reform for Donald Trump’s America: A Review Essay” (Reviewing My Book, “A Real Right to Vote”)

March 3, 2025, 8:33 pmauthoritarian threats in US, Real Right to VoteRick Hasen

Corey Brettschneider and Aidan Calvelli have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Political Science Quarterly). Here is the abstract: Richard Hasen’s A Real Right to Vote powerfully critiques barriers to voting and persuasively defends a proposed constitutional amendment to address… Continue reading

“Can the Media’s Right to Pursue the Powerful Survive Trump’s Second Term?”

March 3, 2025, 1:27 pmauthoritarian threats in US, First Amendment theory, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

David Enrich in NYT Magazine.

Democrats Currently Hold a Net of 7 More Seats in Congress Than They Would With “Fair” Maps

March 3, 2025, 7:56 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

That’s one of the bottom-line findings that will surprise many in today’s Washington Post article that Nick Stephanopoulos co-authored and blogs about below. The five states most biased toward one party or the other are CA (+4.5 D seats); IL… Continue reading

“Wisconsin Supreme Court race puts Trump and Musk at center stage”

March 3, 2025, 7:21 amcampaign finance, judicial electionsRick Hasen

Patrick Marley for WaPo: President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk’s policies will get their first major test at the ballot box this spring in an election that will determine who controls the Wisconsin Supreme Court and shape the future… Continue reading

“Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook Is Based on Failures of US Corporate Democracy, not Foreign Dictators”

March 3, 2025, 7:10 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Sarah Haan: Six weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term, experts are sounding the alarm for democracy. Trump quickly followed his inauguration with an attack on the bureaucratic state, threats to the rule of law, and the invitation of… Continue reading

“The House’s Republican bias is gone. But the gerrymander lives.”

March 3, 2025, 5:50 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Eric McGhee, Chris Warshaw, and I wrote this column in today’s Washington Post on the evaporation of the U.S. House’s longstanding pro-Republican bias in the 2020s. For more than two decades, the House was consistently biased in Republicans’ favor. Votes… Continue reading

Elena Kagan Says Her Most Meaningful Dissenting Opinion is Her Dissent in Common Cause v. Rucho

March 3, 2025, 4:30 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Justice Kagan, who went to Princeton, recently received Princeton’s Wilson Award, the university’s highest honor. In one of the best interviews I’ve seen of a current Justice, Princeton President Chris Eisgruber interviewed Justice Kagan. Toward the end, around 42.00, he… Continue reading

42 Former North Carolina County Election Directors with 750 Years of Combined Experience Urge Appellate Court Not to Throw Out Election Results in State Supreme Court Race by Changing the Rules After the Fact

March 1, 2025, 5:33 pmchicanery, judicial electionsRick Hasen

This is quite a statement in this brief: In their private lives, Amici are not united politically—some are registered Republicans, some registered Democrats, and some Unaffiliated. In the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election, some voted for Judge Jefferson Griffin,… Continue reading

DOJ Gets Another Extension to Respond to Cert Petition in NRSC Campaign Finance Case–Making It More Likely We Don’t See a Decision for Another Year Plus If SCOTUS Takes Case

March 1, 2025, 5:11 pmcampaign finance, political partiesRick Hasen

The latest extension goes through April 9. My earlier coverage is here and here.

“Donald Trump Still Hasn’t Disclosed His Secret Transition Funders”

March 1, 2025, 4:51 pmconflict of interest lawsRick Hasen

Notus: Donald Trump still hasn’t disclosed private transition donors, missing a deadline that every other president, including Trump himself in 2016, has met for decades. When Trump’s campaign decided to run a fully privately funded presidential transition, it also jumped… Continue reading