“This Is What the Courts Can Do if Trump Defies Them”

February 16, 2025, 5:36 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Trevor Morrison and I have published this essay in the NYT today on a question many people are asking. The NYT gave us a lot of space, given the importance of the issue, which makes excerpting the piece difficult. Here… Continue reading

“Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work”

February 15, 2025, 2:40 pmchicanery, voting technologyRick Hasen

Eric Geller for Wired: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen all of its election security work and is reviewing everything it has done to help state and local officials secure their elections for the past eight years, WIRED… Continue reading

“Government Workers Cannot Be Fired for Their Political Views”

February 15, 2025, 2:35 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

John Langford and Erica Newland in The Atlantic: Political-patronage systems promote corruption at the expense of effective governance, and Americans grew dissatisfied with the cronyism and moblike rule that flowed from the spoils system. Following decades of effort to enact… Continue reading

The AfD is the Most Popular Party in Germany Among Those under the Age of 50

February 15, 2025, 4:05 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This recent polling data will come as a surprise to many. Like many of the “new right” parties in Europe, the AfD began as an anti-immigration party. Its support began to rise in direct response to Angela Merkel’s decision in… Continue reading

Rick Pildes on Law & Democracy podcast

February 14, 2025, 2:39 pmUncategorizedNed Foley

As part of its mini-series of episodes previewing the symposium on Nick Stephanopoulos’s book Aligning Election Law, the Law & Democracy podcast invited Rick Pildes, who will be participating in the symposium, to provide some preliminary thoughts on Nick’s book… Continue reading

“Musk-linked group offered $5m for proof of voter fraud – and came up with nothing”

February 14, 2025, 10:54 amfraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Brendan Fischer and Emma Steiner in The Guardian: In May 2024, a flashy ad went viral on social media warning that “across the country, there are real cases of fraud and abuses of the [election] system that have eroded our… Continue reading

“A Supreme Court Race May Shuffle the Rules of Wisconsin’s Democracy, Again”

February 14, 2025, 8:54 amjudicial electionsRick Hasen

Bolts: But voting rights advocates are closely watching the election as well. A host of issues related to voter access—the use of drop boxes, accommodations for disabled voters, and voter ID rules, to name a few—may also ride on this… Continue reading

Election Law and Constitutional Democracy

February 14, 2025, 7:10 amUncategorizedNed Foley

Over at Common Ground Democracy, I’ve posted “The Senate Has Surrendered Its Constitutional Responsibilities,” explaining that the existing electoral system has caused the Senate to fail in its constitutional role of thwarting presidential despotism and “electoral reform can… Continue reading

“How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza”

February 14, 2025, 6:17 amchicanery, conflict of interest lawsRick Hasen

WSJ: When Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos dined with Donald Trump and his wife Melania at Mar-a-Lago in December, there was a lot at stake for both men: Bezos, a titan of industry whose company is crucial to the U.S. economy,… Continue reading

“Order to Drop Adams Case Prompts Resignations in New York and Washington”

February 13, 2025, 2:10 pmchicanery, Department of JusticeRick Hasen

NYT: Manhattan’s U.S. attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey an order from a top Justice Department official to drop the corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams. Then, when Justice Department officials sought to transfer the… Continue reading

“Elections, Courts, and Democratic Crisis: Constitutional Structure and the 2020 Election Cases”

February 13, 2025, 1:08 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Manoj Mate has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, University of Chicago Legal Forum). Here is the abstract: This essay analyzes how the U.S. constitutional order responds to democratic crisis, by examining how the Supreme Court adjudicated cases related to… Continue reading

Top Recent Downloads in Election Law on SSRN

February 13, 2025, 9:18 amtheoryRick Hasen

Here: RankPaperDownloads1.Misconstruing the Electoral Count Act: A Response to Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte Seth Barrett TillmanNational University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth) – Faculty of LawDate Posted: 13 Jan 2025Last Revised: 04 Feb 20258752.The … Continue reading

“Meta’s Oversight Board should just quit, critics say”

February 13, 2025, 7:08 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: A coalition of advocacy groups from around the world is calling on Meta’s quasi-independent Oversight Board to resign en masse to protest the social media giant’s recent pullback on content moderation. In an open letter shared with the Tech… Continue reading

“Trump takes aim at agencies that police wrongdoing, protect federal workers”

February 13, 2025, 6:56 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

WaPo: President Donald Trump is taking aim at federal offices that investigate government malfeasance and protect workers from retribution, summarily firing and replacing five top ethics officials this week in an apparent attempt to consolidate his power over the sprawling… Continue reading