“Flood of Voting Laws Confront Rights Enforcers With Uphill Fight”

February 9, 2022, 6:49 amDepartment of Justice, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Bloomberg Law: The Justice Department’s voting section faces significant hurdles in challenging new state election laws and redrawn maps that Democrats say will suppress or dilute minority votes.The newly staffed-up section of the Civil Rights Division that’s already… Continue reading

Watch Video of Laura Coates Interview Derrick Johnson and Me at CNN on Supreme Court’s Stay in Alabama Voting Rights Redistricting Case

February 8, 2022, 8:35 pmredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Watch here:

“The grim fate of the Voting Rights Act in the hands of the Supreme Court”

February 8, 2022, 4:50 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Nick Stephanopoulos WaPo oped: Will anything be left of the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court finishes with it? It’s looking pretty grim. In 2013, the Supreme Court dismantled the part of the law that required states… Continue reading

Senator McConnell Calls Jan. 6 “Violent Insurrection,” Condemns RNC Censure of Cheney and Kitzinger

February 8, 2022, 2:27 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

NYT: Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, pushed back hard on Tuesday on the Republican Party’s censure of Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and its characterization of Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse,” saying the riot was a “violent… Continue reading

Justice Kavanaugh’s Analysis of Why It Was Appropriate to Issue a Stay in Alabama Redistricting Case Makes No Sense (as Steve Vladeck Persuasively Argues)

February 8, 2022, 2:14 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

This point from Steve Vladeck seems indisputably right (and Justice Kavanaugh indisputably wrong): …Kavanaugh also attempted to suggest that Alabama would be entitled to stays of the lower-court rulings even under the court’s ordinary three-part standard. In a footnote,… Continue reading

Challenges confronting even narrow federal jurisdiction in Electoral Count Act disputes

February 8, 2022, 2:10 pmelectoral collegeDerek Muller

The Committee on House Administration’s majority staff (on behalf of Chair Zoe Lofgren) released a significant document a couple of weeks ago addressing Electoral Count Act reform. This document has been stunningly underexamined in media scrutiny (in my humble opinion),… Continue reading

“The Supreme Court may completely hollow out the Voting Rights Act by 2024”

February 8, 2022, 2:04 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Joan Biskupic CNN analysis.

My New Book Coming March 8: “Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics–and How to Cure It” (Book Tour Info) CheapSpeechBook.com

February 8, 2022, 7:46 amcheap speechRick Hasen

I’m thrilled to announce that my book, Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics–and How to Cure It, will be published one month from today, on March 8, by Yale University Press. They say preorders help a lot to… Continue reading

“The 1887 Law Putting American Democracy at Risk”

February 8, 2022, 7:35 amelection subversion risk, electoral collegeRick Hasen

NYT: The Electoral Count Act is both a legal monstrosity and a fascinating puzzle.Intended to settle disputes about how America chooses its presidents, the 135-year-old law has arguably done the opposite. Last year, its poorly written and ambiguous… Continue reading

“Ohio Supreme Court again rejects legislative maps, sends redistricting commission back to drawing board”

February 8, 2022, 7:28 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Columbus Dispatch: The Ohio Supreme Court once again rejected legislative maps that Republicans drew to disproportionately favor their candidates, sending mapmakers back to the drawing board and Ohio’s primary into massive uncertainty.For the second time, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor… Continue reading

If the Pre-Clearance Regime Still Existed, It Would Not Have Blocked Alabama’s Congressional Plan

February 8, 2022, 6:54 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Since I’ve seen some confusion about this on twitter, I wanted to clarify this point. If the Section 5 pre-clearance regime was still in place, the Department of Justice would still have pre-cleared Alabama’s plan — as the Obama administration… Continue reading

“Districts for a New Decade–Partisan Outcomes and Racial Representation in the 2021 Redistricting Cycle”

February 8, 2022, 5:23 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Eric McGhee, Mike Migurski, and Chris Warshaw posted this new paper comparing the newly enacted congressional and state legislative district plans to their predecessors. The main findings are: (1) The national House map is substantially fairer but still nontrivially skewed… Continue reading

Breaking and Analysis: Supreme Court on 5-4 Vote Stays District Court Order Requiring Alabama to Draw Second Black Majority District, and the Signs for the Voting Rights Act are Ominous

February 7, 2022, 3:38 pmredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The Supreme Court issued a stay in the Alabama congressional Voting Rights Act case I wrote about last week and set the case (actually two related cases) for argument. This is bad news in the short run and likely worse… Continue reading

Andy Kroll: John Eastman is Still Writing Memos Seeking to Support Overturning the 2020 Election

February 7, 2022, 12:34 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Inside this must-read Andy Kroll story on the 2020 election hysteria on the Trumpist right is this nugget: Ramthun also received an eight-page analysis from John Eastman, the same lawyer who wrote the infamous memos arguing for how Pence… Continue reading

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