“Platform Transparency and the First Amendment”

March 9, 2023, 11:52 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Daphne Keller has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In its coming term, the Supreme Court will likely consider whether “platform transparency laws” – laws compelling Internet companies like Facebook and YouTube to disclose more about how… Continue reading

“Is anyone investigating Trump allies’ multi-state effort to access election systems?”

March 9, 2023, 9:21 amelection subversion risk, voting technologyRick Hasen

LAT: As news trickled out that former President Trump’s supporters had organized to access federally protected election machines and copied sensitive information and software, election expert Susan Greenhalgh waited for FBI or Justice Department leaders to announce an investigation. “It… Continue reading

Meta Admits It Erred in Leaving Up Content on Facebook that Encouraged Violent Protests Following Brazil’s Election; Oversight Board Calls for Public Comment

March 9, 2023, 8:30 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

This seems to be an important development: On January 3, 2023, two days after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had been sworn in as Brazil’s president, a Facebook user posted a video with a caption in Portuguese. The caption includes… Continue reading

Two federal courts have recently found that states have no sovereign immunity under the Elections Clause

March 9, 2023, 8:01 amElections Clause, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActDerek Muller

To continue my sovereign immunity discussion from yesterday, a federal court last year found that Congress did not abrogate state sovereign immunity under the Voting Rights Act. Congress must do so with “unmistakable clarity” when enforcing the Reconstruction Amendments,… Continue reading

“Some Election Officials Refused to Certify Results. Few Were Held Accountable.”

March 9, 2023, 7:02 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Doug Bock Clark for ProPublica: Before 2020, local election officials seldom voted against certifying results. But in 2022, conservative officials in North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and New Mexico refused to do so. Some admitted to refusing to certify for… Continue reading

“Inside the ‘Private and Confidential’ Conservative Group That Promises to ‘Crush Liberal Dominance’: Leonard Leo, a key architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, is now the chairman of Teneo, a group that aims to influence all aspects of American politics and culture.”

March 9, 2023, 6:57 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Andy Kroll and Andrea Bernstein of Propublica, and Nick Surgey of Documented, report: A few months ago, Leonard Leo laid out his next audacious project. Ever since the longtime Federalist Society leader helped create a conservative supermajority on the Supreme… Continue reading

“A Startling Document Predicted Jan. 6. Democrats Are Missing Its Other Warnings.”

March 9, 2023, 6:49 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Alex Burns for Politico: Weeks before the 2020 election, a secret 87-page document outlined in matter-of-fact language the threat posed by Donald Trump’s still-to-come campaign of election denial. The private paper — the existence of which has not been reported… Continue reading

“Video offers rare glimpse of police enforcing Arizona’s election laws”

March 9, 2023, 6:33 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

WaPo: As activists staked out a suburban ballot drop box last year, some toting guns and dressed in tactical gear, law enforcement officers found themselves also playing the role of front-line election workers. In interacting with these observers, local sheriff’s… Continue reading

“Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis censured in Colorado for false election claims”; “Ellis admits that multiple statements she made in late 2020 about the presidential election being stolen were ‘misrepresentations'”

March 8, 2023, 5:02 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Colorado Newsline: Jenna Ellis, the Colorado attorney who was former President Donald Trump’s senior legal advisor as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, has been censured by a Colorado judge for misconduct. The public censure order was signed… Continue reading

“Supreme Court’s ‘Dark Money’ Rulings Anchor Defense in Ohio Political Corruption Trial”

March 8, 2023, 3:27 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

WSJ: An Ohio jury is about to decide whether politicians enlisted by an energy company to seek a $1.3 billion state bailout of its two failing nuclear plants pushed the bounds of campaign spending too far. Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. secretly spent… Continue reading

“Trump ‘White House in waiting’ helped develop Ohio voting bill touted as model for states”

March 8, 2023, 1:04 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Zach Roth: A new bill announced by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to standardize and modernize state voting records is being welcomed by election administrators and some voter advocates, who say it could increase transparency and confidence in elections.… Continue reading

West Virginia Now Leaves ERIC

March 8, 2023, 12:05 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

The crazy doesn’t stop.

Three-judge panel in Arkansas finds Congress did not abrogate state sovereign immunity under the Voting Rights Act

March 8, 2023, 11:22 amVoting Rights ActDerek Muller

I failed to blog about this opinion that was released last fall (in October), Simpson v. Hutchinson. A three-judge district court issued the decision, Circuit Judge Stras, joined by District Judges Marshall and Moody. The court dismissed the complaint… Continue reading

Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment to Plaintiffs Suing Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman for Robocalls Meant to Suppress African-American Voting

March 8, 2023, 11:10 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Read the 111-page opinion (via Eugene Volokh).

Election Law Blog

The law of politics and the politics of law