Lordy, I hope there are tapes
AP reports: audio recordings from press interviews with former Texas election officials about LBJ’s infamous “Box 13” are now posted publicly on the LBJ Presidential Library’s archival site.
“Rare ‘corpse flower’ to stink up NYC for first time in years”
The Amorphophallus Titanum – the one with the flower that smells like rotting meat – is apparently set to display its 24-hour blossom in NYC this week.
Pundits, just when you thought you were running thin on metaphoric ledes for… Continue reading
“In Trump case, experts see echoes of failed case against Sen. John Edwards”
Context from the WaPo.
More context: keep in mind that nobody other than the grand jury and the DA’s office has actually seen the charges in the Trump case yet.
Citizens United + Trump payoff = clickbait
In my first academic article, I noted that the Citizens United case seemed to have taken on the perceived sins of a whole line of campaign finance jurisprudence — and more broadly, democratic discontent. That is, it sometimes seemed… Continue reading
“Mega donors fuel record-shattering $45M Wisconsin Supreme Court race”
There’s no shortage of stories today about the money blitz for Tuesday’s state supreme court election. Wisconsin Watch has the following graph:
“Voters swipe right for Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election”
One thing not dramatically contributing to the spending totals: canvassing via dating app.
“Voters with disabilities often overlooked in voting battles”
The AP with an update focused on Wisconsin and Chicago, given the pending state supreme court and mayoral runoff elections.
County boards and hand counts
There’s been ample publicity about the conspiracy-fueled decision in Shasta County, CA to hand-count election results (more here), and a similar truncated effort in Cochise County, AZ. (Aside from the fact that tallies will take far… Continue reading
State enforcement of 14th Amd. insurrection clause
Free Speech for People and Professor Gerard Magliocca out with a new blog post and report on state enforcement of section 3 of the 14th Amendment, prohibiting those who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States from… Continue reading
Shareholder resolutions on disclosure of lobbying and political activity
Lindsey Stewart at Morningstar has this post at the HLS Forum on Corporate Governance, linking to this full report. Both have some intriguing data on the way that the different mega-asset managers have been voting recently on shareholder resolutions… Continue reading
Textualism and 1874
Should some older statutes be getting a radical makeover?
On Thursday last week, a Fifth Circuit panel released a decision on qualified immunity. Judge Don Willett, a frequent critic of the doctrine, wrote for the majority … and then separately… Continue reading
ND legislature bans ranked-choice and approval voting
The statewide legislation, passed with a vetoproof majority, prohibits the approval voting system used in Fargo for the last two elections.
“Arkansas Bill Easing Ballot Access for Newly-Qualifying Parties Passes Legislature”
Hat tip to Richard Winger, of course, on the news.
I’d be intrigued to see if there’s any correlation between the major-party vote margin and the permissiveness of a state’s minor-party ballot access structure.
Signing on for duty
Hi, all. Justin here. I’ll be your Cruise Director for the rest of this week. As Rick mentioned, please send tips my way. Critique, as usual, should be sent directly to @elonmusk.