Reid Wilson for Pluribus News.
FEC Commissioner Lindenbaum Issues Statement Urging Congress to Remove Requirement of Public Disclosure of Street Addresses of Campaign Contributors
See this statement, issued partially in response to Commissioner Dickerson’s proposal on making it easier to get exceptions to disclosure for those facing a risk of harassment.
SCOTUS Recognizes Congress’ Powers to Govern
The Supreme Court has decided Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Assn. of America, Ltd., recognizing Congress has constitutional prerogatives to govern and structure the federal government as it sees fit. The case will no doubt mostly be discussed as an obscure case that put an end to the long conservative attack on the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Board. But it should also be acknowledged as a pro-democracy case–and those are few and far between these days. This Court is arrogant in its assertion of judicial supremacy, and when it comes to Congress, it routinely minimizes that branch’s constitutional powers. This impacts democracy because as Congress lays mired in gridlock, the administrative state is the main place governance is occurring. This decision upholds Congress’s power to financially insulate administrative agencies from Congress’s dysfunction. To be sure, it is doctrinally limited and will not put a stop to other developments likely to undercut congressional flexibility to structure agencies. Nevertheless, it should be recognized as an important separation of powers decision that appears to acknowledge Congress as a co-equal branch of government.
A Justice’s Perspective on Moore v. Harper
Justice Scott Kafker of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and his co-author Simon Jacobs have published a new article, The Supreme Court Summons the Ghosts of Bush v. Gore: How Moore v. Harper Haunts State and Federal Constitutional Interpretation of Election Laws, 59 Wake Forest L. Rev. 61 (2024).
“Secret Service appears unlikely to move RNC protest zone despite pressure from Republicans”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Once again, the emphasis is entirely on risks of disruption with absolutely no consideration of the contribution of assembly and protest to democracy. Everyone should read Tim Zick’s wonderful forthcoming. chapter, Assembly Within ‘Sight and Sound’ of the Audience (Oxford Handbook on Peaceful Assembly 2024).
Democrats and “Traditional” Republicans Must Unite This Year
New Common Ground Democracy column, with this subtitle: “Until electoral reform occurs, the best way to protect democracy is for a bipartisan coalition to join together in a campaign against a would-be autocrat.” The reference to “traditional” Republicans is to this recent Washington Post opinion piece, which (while well-intentioned) fails to recognize that it will be impossible for the non-MAGA wing of the GOP to resuscitate itself without electoral reform according to Common Ground Democracy (in technical terms, Condorcet-based) principles.