Brennan Center Launches “State Court Report”

September 12, 2023, 7:27 amjudicial electionsRick Hasen

Release: Today the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law launched State Court Report, a nonpartisan website devoted to state constitutions and courts. It features commentary and analysis by a wide range of experts, including Judge Pierre Bergeron of… Continue reading

“Response by Tax-Exempt Organization Scholars to Request for Information”

September 11, 2023, 9:13 amtax law and election lawRick Hasen

Ellen Aprill, Roger Colinvaux, Brian Galle, Philip Hackney, and Lloyd Mayer (the five who are among the most respected nonprofit tax law scholars in the nation) have posted this piece on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A group of academics… Continue reading

Yen-tu Su: ‘Politics as Markets’ and Phantom Voter Laws

September 11, 2023, 8:56 amPoliticsMarkets25PoliticsMarkets25Rick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Yen-tu Su, part of the symposium on Politics as Markets at 25: Politics as Markets has often been read as a structuralist manifesto for the then emerging field of the law of… Continue reading

ELB Podcast 5:1: The Trump Indictments, the 2024 Elections, and the Public Peace (Ginsberg, Ben-Ghiat, and Kleinfeld)

September 11, 2023, 8:13 amELB Podcast, election subversion riskRick Hasen

New ELB Podcast: Will the multiple indictments and expected trials of former President Donald Trump lead to violence or unrest? Are the risks of political violence in the U.S. increasing or decreasing? What can the United States learn from other… Continue reading

Democracy, Twenty-Five Years On

September 11, 2023, 7:45 amPoliticsMarkets25PoliticsMarkets25Richard Pildes

(This post is co-authored with Sam Issacharoff) Our thanks to Rick Hasen for organizing this symposium and for giving us the chance to revisit our work from 25 years ago. Neither of us had read Politics as Markets in more… Continue reading

“How a New City Council Map of L.A. Turned Into a Political Brawl”

September 11, 2023, 7:32 amredistrictingRick Hasen

NYT: The redistricting battle in Los Angeles underscores how some big city leaders — often Democrats — have used gerrymandering for their political advantage, much the way Republican lawmakers have redrawn legislative lines to secure or expand their control over… Continue reading

“Dems inch toward House majority with recent court wins”

September 11, 2023, 7:30 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Politico: The fundamentals of the 2024 campaign are still taking shape, but one thing is already clear: A flurry of court actions might cost Republicans the House majority. In the past nine days, state and federal judges threw out two… Continue reading

“The political perils of using the 14th Amendment on Trump”

September 10, 2023, 3:58 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Aaron Blake for WaPo: To the extent that Democratic secretaries of state and others in the party have entertained the idea of disqualification, it’s been to say that the Supreme Court should decide the issue. (A prominent and Trump-critical Republican… Continue reading

“What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement”

September 10, 2023, 2:42 pmcampaign finance, chicanery, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Very deep dive by Politico’s Heidi Pryzybyla: At the time, the Citizens United ruling was widely expected, as the court had already signaled its intentions. When it came, it upended nearly 100 years of campaign spending restrictions. The conservative legal movement seized… Continue reading

“BREAKING: Judge denies Meadows’ bid to move Fulton case to fed court”

September 8, 2023, 5:15 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

AJC: A federal judge on Friday rejected a request from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to move his Fulton County election interference case to U.S. District Court in Atlanta. In a 49-page ruling, U.S. District … Continue reading

“Exclusive: How the Supreme Court’s conservatives rebuffed Alabama”

September 8, 2023, 11:05 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Must-read Joan Biskupic report for CNN: When the Supreme Court considered the challenge to an Alabama congressional map that shortchanged the state’s Black voters, liberal justices expected the conservative majority to side with Alabama – if not gut the 1965… Continue reading

“Georgia special grand jury recommended charging Lindsey Graham in Trump case”

September 8, 2023, 10:56 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

WaPo: An Atlanta-area special grand jury that spent months investigating alleged 2020 election interference in Georgia by Donald Trump and his allies agreed the former president should be indicted in the case and also recommended charging one of Trump’s closest… Continue reading

“Arizona judge rules common practice of validating ballot signatures illegal”

September 8, 2023, 8:29 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Arizona Capitol Times: A practice used by some, if not all, Arizona counties to verify signatures on early ballots may be illegal. And that could result in election officials across the state have to change their procedures – and potentially… Continue reading