“Ethics legislation stalls in Springfield as Senate president tries ‘brazen’ move that would have helped his election case”

June 8, 2025, 1:45 pmlegislation and legislaturesDerek Muller

Chicago Tribune: In the closing hours of the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session, Senate President Don Harmon tried to pass legislation that would have wiped clean a potential multimillion-dollar fine against his political campaign committee for violating election finance… Continue reading

Metzger, “Disqualification, Immunity, and the Presidency”

June 8, 2025, 9:05 amSupreme CourtDerek Muller

New article by Gillian Metzger in the Harvard Law Review: This essay analyzes Trump v. Anderson and Trump v. United States. It argues that, despite surface similarities—not least that they both helped smooth the path to Trump’s re-election as President—the two decisions differ in… Continue reading

Kim, “Restoring Public Trust in Elections: An Empirical Study of How Campaign Finance Reform Can Restore Public Trust in Elections”

June 8, 2025, 9:03 amcampaign financeDerek Muller

New publication from Matthew D. Kim in the Texas A&M Law Review: The American public has become deeply distrustful of elections. This distrust is partly due to Supreme Court decisions curtailing campaign finance restrictions, on First Amendment grounds, to… Continue reading

“Who Gets to Be Italian? Voters Face a Choice.”

June 8, 2025, 4:12 amcomparative election lawDerek Muller

New York Times: Long after seeing millions of Italians emigrate as they fled poverty and war, Italy has now become a country to which millions of people have migrated, its schools and neighborhoods filling with Africans, Asians, Latin Americans… Continue reading

Deep dive into elections in Michigan’s “conservation districts”

June 8, 2025, 4:07 amelection administrationDerek Muller

MLive investigation here, with some notable election rules: Conservation district elections occur in unconventional locations like vineyards, barns and park gazebos. Votes are sometimes handwritten and manually tallied without privacy booths or computerized ballots. Voter turnout is extremely… Continue reading

“A US territory’s colonial history emerges in state disputes over voting and citizenship”

June 7, 2025, 3:04 pmvoter registrationDerek Muller

Associated Press: Squeezed between glacier-packed mountains and Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the cruise-ship stop of Whittier is isolated enough that it’s reachable by just a single road, through a long, one-lane tunnel that vehicles share with trains. It’s so… Continue reading

A brief return to DOJ’s suit in NC

June 7, 2025, 2:51 pmDepartment of Justice, election administration, voter registrationHAVAJustin Levitt

Hi, all. Justin again. Last week, I blogged the Civil Rights Division’s first voting case of the new Administration: the suit alleging that North Carolina violated HAVA when it didn’t require driver’s license numbers or Social Security digits for… Continue reading

“Trump says Elon Musk will face ‘very serious consequences’ if he funds Democratic candidates”

June 7, 2025, 11:31 amauthoritarian threats in US, campaign financeRick Hasen

NBC News: President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be “serious consequences” if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill. “If he does, he’ll have… Continue reading

Alabama Law Review issue dedicated to voting rights

June 7, 2025, 9:04 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActDerek Muller

A recent issue of the Alabama Law Review includes the following pieces: Michael J. Pitts, Re-Legislating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Daniel P. Tokaji, Racist Voting Judge J. Michelle Childs, Voting Rights: Mechanisms for Social Change Daiquiri J.… Continue reading

June 2025 issue of the Election Law Journal

June 7, 2025, 9:03 amelection administrationDerek Muller

Articles include: Masaaki Higashijima, Leontine Loeber, Holly Ann Garnett, & Toby S. James, Challenges of Electoral Integrity in an Era of Overlapping Crises Carolien van Ham, Take Sipm, & Toine Fiselier, Why Do Citizens Perceive Free and Fair Elections as … Continue reading

Brahin, “Redistricting and the Origins of the Good Faith Presumption”

June 7, 2025, 9:02 amredistrictingDerek Muller

I’ll post some academic pieces over the weekend. First up, Leonard C. Brahin in the Barry Law Review: Evidentiary and substantive presumptions are a well-established tool that courts employ when addressing a variety of legal problems. These presumptions streamline… Continue reading

“Bolivia reinstates a leftist challenger but keeps former leader Morales off the ballot”

June 7, 2025, 2:51 amballot access, comparative election lawDerek Muller

Associated Press: Bolivia’s electoral tribunal on Friday included leftist Senate leader Andrónico Rodríguez on the list of presidential candidates approved for the ballot but excluded the powerful former socialist leader Evo Morales — the other major thorn in the… Continue reading

“Georgian falsely accused in ‘2000 Mules’ of voting fraud wants filmmaker to pay”

June 7, 2025, 2:48 amfraudulent fraud squadDerek Muller

Mark Niesse in the Atlanta Journal Constitution: A man falsely accused of voting fraud in the conspiracy film “2000 Mules” tried to hold its producers responsible Friday, asking a federal judge to rule in his favor. But the moviemakers,… Continue reading

Supreme Court Will Not Hear What Could Have Been Major Test of Independent State Legislature Theory Out of Pennsylvania

June 6, 2025, 3:38 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

In an unusually timed orders list, the Supreme Court with no noted dissents turned down RNC v. Genser. As I’ve repeatedly written, if the Supreme Court is going to clarify the independent state legislature theory’s scope, it is best… Continue reading