“Trump’s secret power protection plan”

March 10, 2025, 7:55 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Axios: Anyone who thinks President Trump‘s mesmerizing hold over the GOP will slip if his poll numbers slide is missing one of his biggest innovations in American politics: The creation of a cash-flush political operation that has raked in… Continue reading

“Postal workers conducting the census is part of a Trump pitch for taking over USPS”

March 10, 2025, 7:53 amcensus litigationRick Hasen

Hansi Lo Wang for NPR.

Rick Pildes: My Upcoming Public Lecture, “The Decline of Political Authority: Legal and Political Challenges to Western Democracies, 2015-2025”

March 10, 2025, 5:09 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Next week, I’ll be delivering the 45th Sullivan Lecture at the Ohio Statehouse. Here are the details to register. I’m grateful to Jonathan Adler and Eugene Mazo, who will provide comments on the lecture, as well as to my host,… Continue reading

“‘We’re burning daylight here’: Latest Jan. 6 probe slow to get off the ground”

March 9, 2025, 9:43 amchicaneryRick Hasen

Roll Call: Rep. Barry Loudermilk is eager to make his next move on Jan. 6, 2021. After leading a reinvestigation of the storming of the Capitol during the last Congress, the Georgia Republican had high hopes for the 119th. With… Continue reading

Political Parties—New Ideas

March 9, 2025, 7:02 ampolitical partiesTabatha Abu El-Haj

As I mentioned in my last post on this topic, we have a political party that was elected in part because Americans are concerned about the price of groceries. Now that they hold three branches of government, their primary budget… Continue reading

“Participation Versus Effective Government”

March 9, 2025, 7:00 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

I’ve posted this new essay, co-authored with Sam Issacharoff, at SSRN. The essay is forthcoming in 26 Theoretical Inquires in Law __ (2025). Here’s the abstract: The declining ability of the state to deliver effective outcomes on the major… Continue reading

“Bracket Voting: Elections Should Be Structured Like Familiar Sports Tournaments”

March 9, 2025, 5:59 amUncategorizedNed Foley

Just in time for March Madness: here’s a Common Ground Democracy essay describing a new form of voting that resembles the much-beloved NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments. This essay is based on my contribution to the symposium that the Ohio… Continue reading

“In Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, both sides take aim at the other’s billionaire backers”

March 8, 2025, 5:19 pmcampaign finance, judicial elections, Plutocrats UnitedRick Hasen

NBC News: The Wisconsin Supreme Court contest is shaping up to be a battle of billionaires, with each side in the race casting the other’s most prominent donors as boogeymen. Liberal megadonors like George Soros and outside groups with ties… Continue reading

“Anger at Elon Musk turns violent with molotov cocktails and gunfire at Tesla lots”

March 8, 2025, 2:01 pmchicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo on these despicable acts: Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, more than a dozen violent or destructive actshave been directed at Tesla facilities, according to court documents, surveillance photographs, police records and local media reports reviewed by The Washington Post.… Continue reading

“Lawyers Plan to Sue Federal Government on Behalf of Jan. 6 Rioters”

March 8, 2025, 7:09 amchicanery, election subversion riskRick Hasen

NYT: A team of lawyers is preparing to sue the federal government on behalf of hundreds of people pardoned by President Trump for their role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, claiming that the rioters were… Continue reading

“Utah governor likely to sign legislation phasing out universal mail ballots”

March 8, 2025, 7:03 amelection administrationRick Hasen

AP: Utah would stop mailing ballots to all voters automatically under a bill sent to its Republican governor as the state’s 2025 legislative session wrapped up on Friday. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a proposal requiring voters to opt in to … Continue reading

“Flabbergasted Wisconsin elections officials to depose Madison workers over uncounted ballots”

March 8, 2025, 7:01 amelection administrationRick Hasen

AP: Wisconsin election officials voted Friday to force Madison city workers to sit for depositions as they try to learn more about how nearly 200 absentee ballots in November’s election went uncounted. The uncounted ballots in the state’s capital… Continue reading

“Law & Democracy” podcast with Joshua Sellers

March 8, 2025, 6:29 amUncategorizedNed Foley

The latest in the mini-series of podcasts relating to Ohio State Law Journal‘s symposium on Nick Stephanopoulos’s Aligning Election Law features Joshua Sellers. It’s a really great discussion. Available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

“The November Election That Still Hasn’t Been Certified; North Carolinians voted in a state-supreme-court election four months ago. What’s going on?”

March 7, 2025, 6:46 amelection subversion risk, judicial electionsRick Hasen

David Graham for The Atlantic: Yesterday marked four months since Election Day, but North Carolinians somehow still don’t know who will fill a key seat on the state supreme court. The problem is not that no one knows who won.… Continue reading