“Leonard Leo Pushed the Courts Right. Now He’s Aiming at American Society.”

October 12, 2022, 2:31 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Millions of dollars in television advertisements blasting schools for teaching critical race theory and assailing corporations like BlackRock, Uber and American Airlines for catering to “woke politicians.”A lawsuit pending before the Supreme Court to radically reshape how federal … Continue reading

“How Ron DeSantis Blew Up Black-Held Congressional Districts and May Have Broken Florida Law”

October 11, 2022, 10:20 amredistrictingRick Hasen

ProPublica: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was incensed. Late last year, the state’s Republican legislature had drawn congressional maps that largely kept districts intact, leaving the GOP with only a modest electoral advantage.DeSantis threw out the legislature’s work and redrew… Continue reading

Is there a political question issue lurking in Moore v. Harper?

September 26, 2022, 4:58 amElections Clause, legislation and legislaturesDerek Muller

Plenty of commentary and analysis over Moore v. Harper focuses on the meaning of the Legislature Thereof Clause tucked inside the Elections Clause. But one concept has received essentially zero examination: the political question doctrine. Some of the history of… Continue reading

“Is Internet Voting Trustworthy? The Science and the Policy Battles”

September 12, 2022, 10:12 amvoting technologyRick Hasen

Andrew Appel has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, University of New Hampshire Law Review). Here is the abstract: No known technology can make internet voting secure, according to the clear scientific consensus. In some applications—such as e-pollbooks (voter sign-in),… Continue reading

Democratic, Republican fundraising for election litigation tops $121 million in 18 months, beats entire 2020 presidential election cycle

September 8, 2022, 9:40 amcampaign financeDerek Muller

I’ve chronicled the recent, astonishing increase in spending on election litigation. Sine 2015, election donors may contribute to “election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings,” above and beyond individual candidate campaign contribution limits. The total from the first 18… Continue reading

“The Dark Money Groups Spending Big to Shape the Supreme Court are the Same Groups That Spent Millions Pushing Trump’s Big Lie and Funding Insurrectionists

September 7, 2022, 2:46 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

From the summary of the Accountable.US report: SUMMARY: Judicial Crisis Network, The 85 Fund, and their affiliated groups have spent tens of millions of dollars in dark money to shape the Supreme Court. This largely concealed network of right-wing organizations,… Continue reading

Important Amicus Brief in Moore v. Harper Case Filed by Conference of Supreme Court Justices

September 6, 2022, 6:00 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

This brief is well done (Carter Phillips/Evan Caminker) but also important in that it represents the views of Chief Justices of states from across the political spectrum. Tom Wolf tweet thread explains the brief’s significance. From the Brief’s summary of… Continue reading

“Judge removes Griffin from office for engaging in the January 6 insurrection”

September 6, 2022, 9:57 amchicaneryRick Hasen

Crew: New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffin’s participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th… Continue reading

“What brought down one Texas county’s entire elections department? It was something in the water.”

August 29, 2022, 7:37 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Votebeat: Last November’s sleepy constitutional amendment election nearly came to blows in Gillespie County, a central Texas county known for its vineyards. A volunteer poll watcher, whose aggressive behavior had rankled election workers all day, attempted to force his… Continue reading

“New Hampshire AG Arrests Small-Town Newspaper Publisher Arrested for Improper Ads”

August 26, 2022, 7:16 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Daily Beast: New Hampshire’s attorney general announced on Thursday that the state had arrested the publisher of a local weekly newspaper in Londonderry earlier this week, alleging she illegally published political ads without properly disclosing them to be ads.Londonderry… Continue reading

“Ex-South Texas mayor acquitted of election fraud conspiracy”

August 25, 2022, 5:33 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

AP: A former South Texas mayor was acquitted Thursday of organized election fraud and illegal voting after an eight-day trial.A Hidalgo County jury deliberated for about six hours Thursday before finding former Edinburg Mayor Richard Molina not guilty of… Continue reading

“How a Corporate Law Firm Led a Political Revolution; The untold story of Jones Day’s push to move the American government and courts to the right.”

August 25, 2022, 7:34 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT Mag: For much of its history, Jones Day was a juggernaut in the field of corporate litigation. A global goliath with more than 40 offices and about 2,500 lawyers, it raked in billions a year in fees from tobacco,… Continue reading

“Skewtube: New breed of video sites thrive on misinformation and hate”

August 22, 2022, 10:28 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Reuters: A day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York last May, the video-sharing website BitChute was amplifying a far-right conspiracy theory that the massacre was a so-called false flag operation, meant to discredit gun-loving Americans.Three of the… Continue reading

“Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court just upheld the state’s mail voting law”

August 2, 2022, 11:42 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Jonathan Lai for the Philly Inquirer: Pennsylvania’s mail-voting law is constitutional, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday,upholding the 2019 measure that allows any voter to use mail ballots and removing a cloud of uncertainty heading into the midterm elections.The law,… Continue reading