“Hawaiʻi Senator Didn’t Disclose Possible Conflict Of Interest Before Voting”

June 22, 2025, 5:11 pmconflict of interest laws, ethics investigations, legislation and legislaturesJustin Levitt

From the Honolulu City Beat article: Donovan Dela Cruz voted four times in favor of passing a bill designed to protect māmaki tea, even though he owns a māmaki tea business. . . . The Senate’s rules require that members… Continue reading

Me again

June 22, 2025, 5:09 pmUncategorizedJustin Levitt

Hi, all. It’s Justin again. With profound thanks to Tabatha for wrestling with the news fire hose for the last week, I’m afraid you’re stuck (mostly) with me for the next week or so. Tips / suggestions / scandalous gossip… Continue reading

“The Myth of the Gen Z Red Wave”

June 22, 2025, 1:41 pmauthoritarian threats in US, political polarizationyouth voteTabatha Abu El-Haj

Jean M. Twenge at the Atlantic, using data from the Cooperative Election Study (Tufts) rather than the Yale Youth Poll, offers evidence that the Democratic Party’s immediate post-election handwringing about Gen Z conversion was overstated: “the youth-vote shift in… Continue reading

“GOP Limit on Judges Power Doesn’t Clear Senate Procedural Hurdle”

June 22, 2025, 1:20 pmauthoritarian threats in USTabatha Abu El-Haj

Bloomberg Law Senate Parliamentarian rules that the Senate Republican proposal to restrict the ability of judges to hand down initial rulings against the federal government is subject to the Byrd Rule, requiring a 60-vote threshold.

“Trump undermines Watergate laws in massive shift of ethics system”

June 22, 2025, 1:16 pmauthoritarian threats in USRule of LawTabatha Abu El-Haj

Washington Post article enumerates in concrete terms the post-Watergate guardrails that are under attack, including: 10-year term for FBI directors created in 1976: (“Trump has forced out two FBI directors.”). “The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 aimed to prevent presidents… Continue reading

Election of the Week: NYC Mayoral Primary

June 22, 2025, 6:25 amprimariesNYC Mayoral Primary 2025, rank-choice votingTabatha Abu El-Haj

There are lots of reasons to watch the NYC Democratic primary this week. It will be another opportunity to see whether rank-choice voting moderates who emerges out of a party’s primary. It is also just amusing to see the consternation … Continue reading

“Political Violence Is Here, and It’s Working”

June 22, 2025, 6:04 amauthoritarian threats in USTabatha Abu El-Haj

N.Y. Times Opinion Piece by Tressie McMillan Cottom: One critical fact cutting against the risk that “President Trump’s second administration . . . [would] fit the definition of fascism” was that “the president did not have and probably would… Continue reading

Yale Youth Poll of 18-29 year-olds offers some interesting findings

June 22, 2025, 5:15 amUncategorizedyouth voteTabatha Abu El-Haj

Yale Youth Poll The most intriguing finding is about partisanship (framed not as party-identification but as party-vote): “When asked whether they would vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in the 2026 congressional elections in their district, voters aged 22–29… Continue reading

“As N.Y.C. Mayoral Primary Nears, Money Talks as Mamdani Walks”

June 21, 2025, 8:15 amcampaign financeTabatha Abu El-Haj

N.Y. Times Zohran Mamdani tried to get the Campaign Finance Board to raise his spending cap, given the amount of independent spending buoying Cuomo’s bid. The Board, however, has told him it is not possible within the rules. Meanwhile, Mamdani… Continue reading

Montana Plan is not Without Its Skeptics

June 20, 2025, 11:52 amcampaign finance, direct democracyMontana, state constitutionsTabatha Abu El-Haj

Earlier this week, I blogged about a new initiative in Montana that seeks to rein in corporate political spending by amending the state’s constitution to limit the powers conferred on corporations. In a new article for the local Independent Record… Continue reading

Citizen-voters have standing to challenge DC law permitting non-citizens to vote, DC Circuit holds

June 20, 2025, 9:56 amcourt decisionsDerek Muller

Decision in Hall v. D.C. Board of Elections by Judge Randolph, joined by Judges Pillard and Childs. Excerpts on the theory of vote dilution (lightly revised): Seven District of Columbia citizen-voters filed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of the Local… Continue reading

When will Supreme Court Further Erode Our Democracy . . . probably not until next week

June 20, 2025, 7:40 amredistricting, Voting Rights Actracial gerrymanderTabatha Abu El-Haj

The Court did not decide Louisiana v. Callais today. The case involves a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional maps. In 2023, after a federal court found Louisiana had violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by failing to provide a… Continue reading

“Bloomberg pours more cash into Cuomo super PAC, bringing his total contribution to $8.3M”

June 20, 2025, 5:34 amcampaign financeNYC Mayoral Primary 2025, Super PacsTabatha Abu El-Haj

Politico “With the latest gift, Bloomberg is now single-handedly responsible for one-third of the PAC’s total haul of $24 million since it launched in March, according to a POLITICO analysis. Other real estate and finance executives who make up New… Continue reading

“Republicans are flagged more often than Democrats for sharing misinformation on X’s Community Notes”

June 19, 2025, 2:10 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

Thomas Renault , Mohsen Mosleh, and David G. Rand in PNAS: We use crowd-sourced assessments from X’s Community Notes program to examine whether there are partisan differences in the sharing of misleading information. Unlike previous studies, misleadingness here… Continue reading