“Mary Lou Graves, Nolen Breedlove, and the Nineteenth Amendment”

March 26, 2022, 6:13 amvotingDerek Muller

Draft from Ellen D. Katz, forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy: This close examination of two cases is part of a larger ongoing project to provide a distinct account of the Nineteenth Amendment. In 1921,… Continue reading

“Gerrymandering and the Limits of Representative Democracy”

March 26, 2022, 6:13 amredistrictingDerek Muller

New article from Kai Hao Yang and Alexander Zentefis: We assess the capacity of gerrymandering to undermine the will of the people in a representative democracy. Citizens have political positions represented on a spectrum, and electoral maps separate people into… Continue reading

Some recent law student scholarship on election law

March 26, 2022, 6:12 amabsentee ballots, campaign finance, redistrictingDerek Muller

This weekend, I’ll blog about some recent election law scholarship. I thought I’d start by highlighting a few student notes that caught my eye in recent weeks: Kyle Apple (Iowa), Gerrymandering the Presidency: Why Federal District Popular Voting Presents a … Continue reading

“Justice Thomas Ruled on Election Cases. Should His Wife’s Texts Have Stopped Him?”

March 26, 2022, 6:08 amSupreme CourtDerek Muller

Adam Liptak explores in the New York Times: The disclosure that Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, had sent a barrage of text messages to the Trump White House urging efforts to overturn the 2020 election brought… Continue reading

Election litigation update for week ending March 25, 2022

March 25, 2022, 2:21 pmelection administration, Elections Clause, redistrictingDerek Muller

Filing a complaint or winning a judgment are actions good enough to earn the headlines, but there’s plenty of election litigation ongoing throughout the United States at various stages. A taste of a few things that happened over the past… Continue reading

“Federal judges mull trimming Ohio early voting among other options to address redistricting delays”

March 25, 2022, 2:21 pmredistrictingDerek Muller

Out of the frying pan, from Cleveland.com: A federal court is considering whether to order Ohio to trim its early voting period for the May 3 primary election to buy more time for the state’s stalled redistricting efforts.During a… Continue reading

“Group Wanted to Kidnap Michigan Governor and Block Biden’s Election, Plotter Says”

March 25, 2022, 2:20 pmelectoral collegeDerek Muller

New York Times: To hear Ty Garbin tell it, the kidnapping of Michigan’s Democratic governor would have been just the beginning.By abducting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Mr. Garbin and other plotters hoped, he said, to set off a chain of… Continue reading

“Judge throws out Maryland congressional map over ‘extreme’ gerrymandering”

March 25, 2022, 10:10 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Meagan Flynn at the Washington Post: Maryland judge has thrown out the state’s congressional map, calling it an “extreme partisan gerrymander” in what is a victory for Republicans who said Democrats in the state General Assembly sought to silence… Continue reading

“Michigan Supreme Court tosses partisan fairness lawsuit challenging state House map”

March 25, 2022, 10:10 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Detroit Free Press: The Michigan Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Friday alleging that the state House map drawn by the redistricting commission is unfair to Democrats. In a 5-2 ruling, the court upheld the new state House districts. In… Continue reading

Jane Mayer: “Legal Scholars are Shocked by Ginni Thomas’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Texts”

March 25, 2022, 9:05 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

New Yorker: Several of the country’s most respected legal scholars say that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas must immediately recuse himself from any cases relating to the 2020 election and its aftermath, now that it has been… Continue reading

Watch Archived Video of My Conversation About My “Cheap Speech” Book and the First Amendment with Genevieve Lakier (U Chicago/Knight) for the Brennan Center

March 25, 2022, 7:29 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Really great questions from Genevieve. Watch here:

Quote of the Day (and it’s a doozy from Ginni Thomas)

March 25, 2022, 6:50 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

“‘Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off… Continue reading

“GOP Congressman Jeff Fortenberry Found Guilty in Campaign Finance Case”

March 25, 2022, 6:43 amcampaign finance, legislation and legislaturesDerek Muller

Deanna Paul in the Wall Street Journal: A federal jury in Los Angeles on Thursday found Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry guilty of lying to federal investigators in a bid to conceal illegal campaign contributions he received during a 2016… Continue reading

“Ohio’s anti-gerrymandering coalition splits after voting-rights groups delay congressional map challenge”

March 25, 2022, 6:40 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Cleveland.com: The backlash within Ohio’s political left was swift after a major voting-rights group announced this week it had dropped its attempt to block a new Republican-drawn congressional map from taking effect in 2022.The ACLU of Ohio, representing a… Continue reading