Tabatha Abu el-Haj is Primary ELB Blogger the Week of November 17
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Thanks Tabatha!
“Kansas Redistricting Was on the Fast Track. Then Some Republicans Said No.”
NYT:
The top Republicans in Kansas were ready to join President Trump’s redistricting push and redraw the state’s political map to deliver another seat in Congress to Republicans. Democrats feared that a special session to pass new district lines… Continue reading
“Johnson to Seat Grijalva, Seven Weeks After She Was Elected”
NYT:
Speaker Mike Johnson plans to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona as a member of Congress on Wednesday, according to his office, 50 days after her election, as the House returns from an extended recess.
Ms. Grijalva, a… Continue reading
“Texas Latino civic group sues to block AG Ken Paxton from shutting it down”
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
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”
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.”
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
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”
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”
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
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
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”
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”
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