“Texas Latino civic group sues to block AG Ken Paxton from shutting it down”

November 12, 2025, 7:19 amchicanery, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Texas Tribune: Jolt Initiative, a nonprofit that aims to increase civic participation among Latinos, is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block his efforts to shut them down. Paxton announced Monday that he was seeking to revoke the nonprofit’s… Continue reading

At NYU Democracy Project, an International Perspective on Immigration

November 12, 2025, 5:10 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Niels Petersen is Professor of Public Law, International Law, and EU Law at the University of Münster. His essay is titled Supporting Democracy by Fixing the Asylum System: The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing populist party, was founded… Continue reading

“Spending Bill Would Pave Way for Senators to Sue Over Phone Searches”

November 11, 2025, 3:40 pmchicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: A spending package expected to be approved as part of a deal to reopen the government would create a wide legal avenue for senators to sue for as much as half a million dollars each when federal investigators… Continue reading

My New One at Slate: “The Supreme Court Just Took a Scary Voting Case That Has Trump Salivating. He Might Be Disappointed.”

November 11, 2025, 11:00 amabsentee ballots, election subversion risk, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: President Donald Trump’s obsession with mail-in balloting reached the Supreme Court on Monday through a bonkers 5th Circuit opinion written by Trump appointee (and Trump Supreme Court auditioner) Andrew… Continue reading

“Give Parents the Vote” and Responses

November 11, 2025, 7:51 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

The Notre Dame Law Review has published Steve Sachs and Josh Kleinfeld’s article advocating parents voting on behalf of their children, responses from me and from Joey Fishkin, and a reply from Sachs and Kleinfeld. Here are links to the… Continue reading

“Judge’s ruling likely to give Democrats a congressional seat in Utah”

November 11, 2025, 7:17 amredistrictingRick Hasen

WaPo: A Utah judge late Monday rejected a congressional map that state Republican lawmakers had passed last month and ordered the adoption of a new map before next year’s midterm elections that is likely to give Democrats a U.S. House… Continue reading

Register for Free Safeguarding Democracy Project Webinar on November 18: “The Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Act, and the 2026 Elections”

November 11, 2025, 7:15 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Tuesday, November 18 The Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Act, and the 2026 Elections (webinar) 12:15pm-1:15pm, PTRegister here.Samantha Blencke, Native American Rights Fund, Ellen Katz, University of Michigan Law School, and Deuel Ross, Legal Defense FundRichard L. Hasen, moderator… Continue reading

The Danger of the Trump Pardons is About the Next Attempt at Election Subversion

November 11, 2025, 7:13 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

As I told the AP: While the pardons may have no immediate legal impact, experts warned they send a dangerous message for future elections. “It is a complete abdication of the responsibility of the federal government to ensure we… Continue reading

Utah Court Ruling on Partisan Fairness Metrics

November 11, 2025, 6:28 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

In its decision rejecting the legislature’s new congressional map, the Utah trial court included a lengthy discussion of quantitative measures of partisan fairness in districting. The legislature argued that partisan asymmetry and the mean-median difference should be used to assess… Continue reading

“Trump Pardons Giuliani and Others Involved in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election”

November 10, 2025, 7:33 amauthoritarian threats in US, election subversion riskRick Hasen

NYT: President Trump has granted pardons to his former lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and a wide array of other people accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to the Justice Department’s pardon attorney. The… Continue reading

“Federal Judge, Warning of ‘Existential Threat’ to Democracy, Resigns”

November 10, 2025, 7:28 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: A federal judge warned of an “existential threat to democracy” in a searing first-person essay published on Sunday, saying he had stepped down from the bench to speak out against President Trump. He accused Mr. Trump of “using… Continue reading

“Utah’s new congressional map could get judicial approval by next week”

November 10, 2025, 7:19 amredistrictingRick Hasen

KSL reports.

Breaking: Supreme Court Agrees to Review Bonkers 5th Circuit Opinion Holding that Federal Law Prohibits the Counting of Timely Mailed Ballots That Arrive after Election Day

November 10, 2025, 7:13 amelection administration, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The cert grant is here. Here is what I wrote when the 5th Circuit first decided this case: Fifth Circuit in Bonkers Opinion Holds It Violates Federal Law for Miss. to Accept Ballots Postmarked by Election Day But Arriving… Continue reading

NYU Democracy Project: A Populist Democratic Party, Lessons from the Gilded Age, and Electoral Due Process

November 10, 2025, 5:47 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

I’ve been too busy to blog much this past week, either about my own work or the NYU Democracy Project. But here are three essays from last week in the NYU Democracy Project series of 100 essays in 100 days… Continue reading