Development in Alabama Racial Gerrymander Case

November 19, 2025, 1:19 pmVoting Rights ActAlabamaTabatha Abu El-Haj

AP News has an update on Alabama’s racial gerrymander case: “U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, issued the ruling Monday putting a new court-selected map in place for the 2026 and 2030… Continue reading

Judge Jerry Smith Issues His 104-Page Dissent to Yesterday’s 3-Judge District Court Holding that Texas’s Re-Redistricting is Likely an Unconstitutional Racial Gerrymander. Along the Way He Calls Out the “Pernicious” and “Outrageous” Behavior of Judge Brown in the Majority

November 19, 2025, 12:43 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

You can find the dissent at this link. It begins with a remarkable attack on Judge Brown (a Trump appointee) explaining that Smith was not responsible for any delay in issuing the decision: In my 37 years on the federal… Continue reading

Mid-Decade Redistricting and the Purcell Principle

November 19, 2025, 7:47 amredistricting, referendum, Supreme CourtTravis Crum

Yesterday, a three-judge district court preliminarily enjoined Texas’s mid-decade congressional redistricting map. This case will be promptly appealed to the Supreme Court, and it will be the first of many mid-decade redistricting cases on the shadow docket. The district court’s… Continue reading

New Article: Increasing Turnout in Prisons

November 19, 2025, 7:44 amabsentee ballots, votingincarcerated votersTabatha Abu El-Haj

MIchael W. Sances (Temple University) has a new article, In-Person Voting Increases Turnout Among Incarcerated Persons: Evidence From the Cook County Jail in the Election Law Journal. The vast majority of persons incarcerated in jails are eligible to vote, but… Continue reading

“Dark money groups pour cash into fight over gerrymandered Missouri congressional map”

November 18, 2025, 9:51 pmcampaign finance, redistricting, referendumTravis Crum

Missouri Independent reports: Voters across Missouri late last week received a text message urging them to take their names off petitions they may have “accidentally signed.” The message, labeled as the work of the Republican National Committee, dropped the name… Continue reading

“Citing extraordinary circumstances, Chester County will count the vast majority of provisional ballots cast after Election Day chaos”

November 18, 2025, 6:49 pmelection administration, provisional ballotsTabatha Abu El-Haj

Philadelphia Inquirer. Last month, officials mistakenly sent poll books to precincts in Chester County (PA) that did not include the names of independent and third-party voters. As a consequence, over 12,000 voters (mostly independent and third-party voters) were forced… Continue reading

“Why is American democracy in such peril?”

November 18, 2025, 5:21 pmUncategorizedNed Foley

Steve Huefner, my colleague at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and its Election Law program, and I had a conversation about the stresses and challenges facing democracy in the United States. A recording is available. I found… Continue reading

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