Tenth Circuit, Following Supreme Court’s Decision in AFPF v. Bonta, Finds Aspect of Wyoming’s Campaign Finance Law Unconstitutional under the First Amendment

October 11, 2023, 10:53 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

What’s most significant in this decision by Judge Tymkovich for a unanimous 3-judge panel is the determination that Bonta makes it harder to sustain campaign finance disclosure laws (as I said in a NYT oped the day after the… Continue reading

“Exclusive: Charles Koch Has Given More Than $5 Billion Of His Stock To Two Nonprofits”

October 11, 2023, 8:23 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Forbes: Charles Koch is making big moves to ensure that his charities and causes are funded long after he’s gone. In an exclusive interview, the 87-year-old chairman and co-CEO of Koch Industries (and the 16th richest person in America, … Continue reading

“Conservative Election Activists Use Virginia as a Dry Run for 2024”

October 11, 2023, 7:50 amfraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

NYT: In 2021, after Republican victories in Virginia, conservative activists were so proud of their work training poll watchers, recruiting election workers and making other attempts to subtly influence the voting system that they wrote a memo called “The Virginia … Continue reading

“We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority”

October 11, 2023, 7:45 amchicaneryRick Hasen

Very illuminating ProPublica report. I highly recommend their accompanying three-part podcast, which included a lot of information I did not know (such as the attempt by Leo and allies to get the Missouri plan for choosing judges thrown out in… Continue reading

“Crosspartisan coalition urges presidential candidates to disclose their campaign ‘bundlers'”

October 11, 2023, 7:32 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

See this release from a number of groups.

“Kari Lake Stokes Fear and Leans on Trump as She Formally Opens Senate Run”

October 11, 2023, 7:29 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor who refashioned herself as an ally and protégé of Donald J. Trump, officially announced she was running for the Senate in Arizona on Tuesday, offering a dark vision of America and pitching… Continue reading

“Republican effort to impeach Wis. Supreme Court justice loses steam”

October 11, 2023, 7:25 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Patrick Marley for WaPo: Republican lawmakers in this political battleground state appear to be easing off an effort to impeach a new liberal state Supreme Court justice who in her campaign promoted abortion rights and condemned gerrymandering… State Sen. Duey… Continue reading

ELB Book Corner: Michael Kang: “Getting Rid of Re-Election: A Single Term Limit”

October 11, 2023, 7:00 amcampaign finance, judicial electionsRick Hasen

I am pleased to welcome Michael Kang to ELB Book Corner. Michael, along with Joanna Shepherd, is author of the new book, Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections. Here is the final… Continue reading

Travis Crum: “Stopping Alabama’s Defiance of the Voting Rights Act”

October 10, 2023, 2:27 pmredistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Travis Crum: Alabama is once again the frontline of the fight for voting rights. After two years of litigation, Alabama now has two Black-opportunity congressional districts. But unfortunately, there are shockingly few… Continue reading

“Prosecutors Ask if Trump Will Blame His Lawyers as Defense in Election Case”

October 10, 2023, 12:11 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to force former President Donald J. Trump to tell them months before he goes to trial on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election whether he intends to defend himself by… Continue reading

“North Carolina Republicans enact voting, election boards changes over Democratic governor’s vetoes”

October 10, 2023, 12:10 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

AP: North Carolina Republicans enacted vote-count restrictions and weakened the governor’s ability to oversee elections and other state regulatory bodies on Tuesday by overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. Lawsuits attempting to block the new laws are likely as the… Continue reading

House GOP Conference Uses a Version of Ranked-Choice Voting to Seek Majority Winner

October 10, 2023, 11:51 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

The GOP Conference Rules employ a version of ranked-choice voting to find the candidate with majority support in the caucus as a Speaker candidate. If there’s no majority winner when more than two candidates run, the bottom one is eliminated… Continue reading

Lal and Thompson Paper: “Did Private Election Administration Funding Advantage Democrats in 2020?”

October 10, 2023, 9:34 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Important new draft from Apoorva Lal and Dan Thompson. Abstract: Private donors contributed more than $350 million to local election officials to support the administration of the 2020 election. Supporters argue these grants were neutral and necessary to maintain normal… Continue reading

A Bit of Context on Alexander v. the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP

October 10, 2023, 9:24 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Wednesday, the Court is going to hear its first case from this round of re-districting on whether race unconstitutionally predominated in the drawing of a congressional district, in this case CD 1 in South Carolina (R. Nancy Mace’s district). There’s… Continue reading

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