Political Parties—New Ideas

March 9, 2025, 7:02 ampolitical partiesTabatha Abu El-Haj

As I mentioned in my last post on this topic, we have a political party that was elected in part because Americans are concerned about the price of groceries. Now that they hold three branches of government, their primary budget… Continue reading

“Darker Blue: How Small Donors Drive Congressional Polarization”

March 7, 2025, 5:42 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

At Good Authority, the political scientist John Sides has a good summary of the findings in this important new study that’s received a lot of attention. The study, by Stanford’s Chenoa Yorgason, has the title above. Here is from Sides’… Continue reading

Democrats Currently Hold a Net of 7 More Seats in Congress Than They Would With “Fair” Maps

March 3, 2025, 7:56 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

That’s one of the bottom-line findings that will surprise many in today’s Washington Post article that Nick Stephanopoulos co-authored and blogs about below. The five states most biased toward one party or the other are CA (+4.5 D seats); IL… Continue reading

How German Elections Are Financed

February 27, 2025, 7:21 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

I’m often asked, including by students, about how elections in other major democracies are financed. Since Germany just had elections, there was some explanation of this issue in the press. A good summary can be found in this article;… Continue reading

Political Parties—A Fresh Look

February 27, 2025, 6:42 ampolitical parties, third partiesTabatha Abu El-Haj

We have a political party that was elected in part because Americans are concerned about the price of groceries. Now that they hold three branches of government, their primary budget goal is to maintain and extend tax breaks that overwhelmingly… Continue reading

“Indiana Republicans Move to Ban Student IDs for Voting”

February 26, 2025, 1:09 pmvoter idRick Hasen

Bolts: Daniel Jenkins has volunteered to boost voter turnout on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus since becoming a student there in 2022. Jenkins, now a junior studying political science, has spent years helping other students fill out voter registration forms and… 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

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

“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

“Fiery Directives Under Trump’s Justice Dept. Signal a Significant Shift”

February 11, 2025, 7:05 amauthoritarian threats in US, Department of JusticeRick Hasen

NYT: Hours after being sworn in as President Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi declared to the entire Justice Department work force, “This shameful era ends today.” That assertion, in one of 14 memos she issued on Wednesday, underscored what many… Continue reading

“With firings and lax enforcement, Trump moving to dismantle government’s public integrity guardrails”

February 11, 2025, 7:00 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

AP: In the first three weeks of his administration, President Donald Trump has moved with brazen haste to dismantle the federal government’s public integrity guardrails that he frequently tested during his first term but now seems intent on removing entirely.… Continue reading

Levitsky: “The New Authoritarianism: This isn’t single-party rule, but it’s not democracy either.”

February 11, 2025, 6:57 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Steve Levitsky in The Atlantic: With the leader of a failed coup back in the White House and pursuing an unprecedented assault on the constitutional order, many Americans are starting to wrap their mind around what authoritarianism could look like… Continue reading

“Jeffries Works With N.Y. Democrats to Weaken G.O.P. Control of the House”

February 4, 2025, 6:47 amchicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: When Albany Democrats began discussing a rewrite of New York’s special election law in recent days, seemingly out of the blue, they framed it publicly as a matter of good governance. But behind the scenes, their motivation was far… Continue reading

“Former US Sen. Bob Menendez gets 11 years in prison for taking bribes and acting as agent of Egypt” (and Appears to Be Angling for a Trump Pardon)

January 30, 2025, 6:52 ambribery, chicaneryRick Hasen

AP: Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt — crimes his lawyer said he’s been mocked for as “Gold Bar… Continue reading