My New One at Slate with Matthew Cooke: “Republicans Are Suing to Kill California’s Pro-Democratic Gerrymander. They Have a Huge Problem.”

November 18, 2025, 2:30 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

My student Matthew Cooke and I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: California Republicans, now joined by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, have sued California in federal court to stop implementation of Proposition 50, a voter-passed… Continue reading

11th Circuit Affirms District Court’s Dismissal of Trump’s Defamation Case Against CNN

November 18, 2025, 12:11 pmauthoritarian threats in US, First Amendment theoryTabatha Abu El-Haj

In an unpublished per curiam opinion, the 11th Circuit affirmed the District Court’s dismissal with prejudice of Donald Trump’s defamation suit against Cable News Network, Inc. (CNN) based on the use of the phrase “Big Lie” to describe his… Continue reading

Breaking: Federal Court on 2-1 Vote Blocks Texas from using new Congressional Gerrymander for 2026 Midterms, Requires Using 2021 Maps (Link to ruling)

November 18, 2025, 10:49 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Texas Tribune: Texas cannot use its new congressional map for the 2026 election and will instead need to stick with the lines passed in 2021, a three-judge panel ruled Tuesday. The decision is a major blow for Republicans, in Texas… Continue reading

“Election Officials Press Trump Administration Over Voter Data”

November 18, 2025, 8:53 amelection administrationTabatha Abu El-Haj

N.Y. Times: “We write to express our immense concern with recent reporting that the Department of Justice (D.O.J.) has shared voter data with the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.), and to seek clarity on whether D.O.J. and D.H.S. actively… Continue reading

Governor Abbott Relents on Special Election

November 18, 2025, 8:39 ampolitical polarizationspecial electionTabatha Abu El-Haj

Roll Call reports that Greg Abbott has set a special election runoff for Texas’s 18th District for Jan. 31, 2026. Abbott has delayed setting the date for 9 months, and the election will occur nearly 11 months after the death… Continue reading

“The Supreme Court’s new voting case will test its supposed nonpartisanship”

November 18, 2025, 7:22 amUncategorizedNed Foley

A new Justice, Democracy, and Law essay at SCOTUSblog. Focusing on the new cert grant in Watson v. RNC, which concerns the deadline for submitting absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day, the essay considers two different jurisprudential perspectives the Court… Continue reading

Bruce Cain on A Reform Agenda for a Polarized Era, for NYU’s Democracy Project

November 18, 2025, 6:54 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

From Bruce Cain’s essay, appearing today at the NYU Democracy Project: At Caltech, I was asked to assist a group of distinguished physicists who were evaluating the technical feasibility of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, aka “Star Wars”). The… Continue reading

“A Milestone for Improving America’s Elections”

November 18, 2025, 6:48 amUncategorizedNed Foley

I’ve posted a short Common Ground Democracy essay on the event in Austin over this past weekend at which Joe Manchin, the former Senator from (and governor of) West Virginia, embraced the fundamental principle of Condorcet Voting, called “Consensus Choice… Continue reading

Issue One Reveals New Evidence of How Big Pharma Plays the Political Dark Money Game

November 17, 2025, 7:37 pmcampaign financedark moneyTabatha Abu El-Haj

A Press Release from Issue One provides evidence from tax filings showing how big pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer, use their trade association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (“PhRMA”) to funnel money to dark money groups… Continue reading

New Book: Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship

November 17, 2025, 7:21 pmUncategorizedArtificial Intelligence, New Scholarship, technologyTabatha Abu El-Haj

Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship (MIT 2025) by Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders lays out a broad account of the myriad ways AI is likely to reshape democracy and governance. “AI’s impact on… Continue reading

“Election Year Activities of Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) Organizations”

November 17, 2025, 5:46 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

The latest version from Steven Sholk is now available.

Democratic backsliding is not just a matter of how the government treats citizens

November 17, 2025, 1:50 pmauthoritarian threats in USTabatha Abu El-Haj

We often work and think in silos. Law of democracy scholars assess the state of democracy by considering the fairness of our elections. Traditionally, our focus is on whether voting rules and representation are fair. Lately, the scope of questions… Continue reading

“Why Curtis Sliwa Stayed in the Race—and the Billionaires Who Tried to Buy Him Out”

November 17, 2025, 1:22 pmcampaign financemoney in politics, NYC 2025 Mayoral RaceTabatha Abu El-Haj

Time has a new story on big money in New York City politics. “In the final stretch of the New York City mayoral campaign, Curtis Sliwa says he was offered $10 million by a group of unnamed billionaires to drop… Continue reading

“The Unraveling of the Justice Department”

November 17, 2025, 1:10 pmauthoritarian threats in USdemocratic backsliding, Rule of Law, Trump AdminstrationTabatha Abu El-Haj

From the N.Y. Times Magazine, a long profile of the internal workings of the Justice Department and the complete abandonment of basic rule of law norms, based on interviews with 60 former DOJ attorneys. The interviews include lawyers from… Continue reading