“Kansas GOP lawmakers revive a plan to stop giving voters 3 extra days to return mail ballots”

April 2, 2024, 6:48 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

AP: Republican legislators in Kansas have revived a proposal to stop giving voters three extra days after polls close to return mail ballots after making key concessions in a bid to get enough votes from rural GOP lawmakers to overcome… Continue reading

“RFK Jr. threatens to sue Nevada over ballot access”

April 2, 2024, 6:46 amballot accessRick Hasen

CBS News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is threatening legal action against Nevada over his petition to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, his campaign said Monday, after CBS News reported that the signatures he had gathered could be … Continue reading

“Transforming Constitutional Doctrine Through Mandatory Appeals from Three-Judge District Courts: The Warren and Burger Courts and Their Contemporary Lessons”

April 1, 2024, 1:28 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Michael Solimine, who knows more about the use of 3-judge courts in election cases than anyone I know, has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming U Pitt. L. Rev.). Here is the abstract: Judicial interpretations of the Equal Protection and… Continue reading

“The ‘Bounds’ of Moore: Pluralism and State Judicial Review”

April 1, 2024, 12:04 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Leah Litman and Kate Shaw have written this essay for the Yale Law Journal Forum. Here is the abstract: In Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court rejected a maximalist version of the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), invoking state judicial… Continue reading

My New One at Slate: “2016 Election Fraudster ‘Ricky Vaughn’ Might Finally Be About to Face the Music”

April 1, 2024, 7:16 amcheap speech, chicanery, First Amendment theoryRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. it begins: On Friday, a federal appeals court in New York will consider a case with key implications for the 2024 election. At issue is whether it violates federal law to trick… Continue reading

“How Republicans texted and emailed their way into a money problem”

April 1, 2024, 7:13 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

WaPo: In the years after Donald Trump lost the presidency to Joe Biden, Trump sent so many emails and text messages asking for money that Republican consultants warned his mailing lists could become useless. The former president’s friends told him… Continue reading

“China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms”

April 1, 2024, 7:11 amcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials. The accounts… Continue reading

“From Pizzagate to the 2020 Election: Forcing Liars to Pay or Apologize”

March 31, 2024, 2:18 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: Michael J. Gottlieb can never remember the exact amount — it’s $148,169,000— that a jury ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay the Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. But Ms. Freeman’s words after the December 2023 victory… Continue reading

Federal court relies on Cook v. Gralike to find New Jersey ballot design likely violates the Elections Clause

March 30, 2024, 9:54 amballot accessDerek Muller

Rick H. links to the story about the New Jersey ballot design case and a federal judge finding that the “party line” was unconstitutional. The first claim, unsurprisingly, is an Anderson-Burdick balancing test. But I wanted to draw attention to… Continue reading

“Donald Trump faces backlash after sharing video featuring a hogtied Joe Biden”

March 30, 2024, 8:11 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

USA Today: Former President Donald Trump is facing intense criticism for what Democrats say is a new low this weekend after sharing a video on his social media website that has an image of President Joe Biden hogtied. In a… Continue reading

“Revisiting Florida 2000 and the Butterfly Effect; The evidence is strong that Al Gore would have won had it not been for an infamous ballot design in Palm Beach County.”

March 30, 2024, 8:02 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Nate Cohn for NYT’s The Tilt.

“Judge kills NJ’s controversial ballot design for Senate primary”

March 29, 2024, 10:10 amballot access, political partiesRick Hasen

Politico: New Jersey’s controversial ballot design that gives party-backed candidates an advantage will be scrapped in the June primary, a federal judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi granted the preliminary injunction sought by Rep. Andy Kim and two Congressional… Continue reading