“Biden issues preemptive pardons for Fauci, Milley, Jan. 6 Committee and others”

January 20, 2025, 7:07 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politico: President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons to a slew of high-profile targets of President-elect Donald Trump — a striking last-minute effort to shield them from prosecution just hours before Trump, who has promised to punish his… Continue reading

“Trump Barely Won the Popular Vote. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way?”

January 19, 2025, 9:23 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Ezra Klein NYT column: In 2024, Donald Trump won the popular vote by 1.5 points. Trump and Democrats alike treated this result as an overwhelming repudiation of the left and a broad mandate for the MAGA movement. But by any… Continue reading

“Trump Says He Will Sign Executive Order to Stall TikTok Ban”

January 19, 2025, 9:19 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Sunday that he would issue an executive order to stall a federal ban of TikTok, just hours after major app stores removed the popular social media site and it stopped operating for U.S.… Continue reading

“For Those Deemed Trump’s Enemies, a Time of Anxiety and Fear”

January 19, 2025, 9:08 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: As Donald J. Trump returns to office, the critics, prosecutors and perceived enemies who sought to hold him accountable and banish him from American political life are now facing, with considerable trepidation, a president who is assuming power having … Continue reading

Should We Be Saying “President Haley”?

January 19, 2025, 7:21 amUncategorizedNed Foley

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas published this piece that I wrote on the failure of the electoral system to produce an outcome corresponding to “the real preference of the Voters” (Madison’s term for when a third candidate is… Continue reading

“Minnesota Supreme Court voids House Jan. 28 special election, rules Gov. Walz called it too soon”

January 18, 2025, 2:23 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

CBS News: he Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday canceled the special election for a metro House race later this month, finding Gov. Tim Walz set the date before state law requires. The election was scheduled for Jan. 28 for House… Continue reading

“Trump launches meme coin, apparently makes more than $25 billion overnight”

January 18, 2025, 2:19 pmchicaneryRick Hasen

Axios: President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies. Why it matters: The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both… Continue reading

“Is it finally time to end the ‘blessed’ super PAC?; Last year, Democrats funneled nearly all of their resources into one billion dollar entity. Why did they put all of their eggs in one basket?”

January 18, 2025, 2:14 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Kyle Tharp writes.

Newly-released OLC memo from 2020: “Transmission of Electoral-College Certificates by ‘Registered Mail'”

January 18, 2025, 10:24 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

This memo from the Office of Legal Counsel was released January 17, 2024, but was written February 27, 2020 (i.e., late in the first Trump administration and well before Election Day). There is an editor’s note that the Electoral Count… Continue reading

Pennsylvania Supreme Court to (Finally) Decide Constitutionality of Rule Barring the Counting of Undated or Misdated but Timely Mail-In Ballots

January 17, 2025, 1:50 pmelection administrationRick Hasen

The PA Supreme Court repeatedly refused to consider this issue during the runup to the 2024 elections (which was probably wise, given the uncertainty that such a ruling, going up to SCOTUS, likely would have engendered). It has now agreed … Continue reading

“On Voting Rights, Eight Legal Battles to Watch in 2025”

January 17, 2025, 9:35 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Bolts reports.

“‘Hopefully, I’ll run into a few friendly faces’: US Capitol rioters return to DC to celebrate Trump inauguration”

January 17, 2025, 7:47 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Marshall Cohen for CNN: Some rioters charged or convicted in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol are returning to Washington, DC, for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to court filings in a dozen cases and multiple sources familiar with… Continue reading

“Ranked-List Proportional Representation”

January 17, 2025, 7:41 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

I posted this paper introducing a new form of proportional representation that combines the key features of the two PR systems that are most commonly advocated in the American context. The paper is part of a Wisconsin Law Review symposium.… Continue reading

Supreme Court, Applying Intermediate Scrutiny, Upholds TikTok Ban Against First Amendment Challenge on Grounds That It Allows a Foreign Adversary to Spy on Americans

January 17, 2025, 7:15 amcheap speechRick Hasen

The result was unanimous, in a per curiam opinion and two concurrences (by Sotomayor and Gorsuch). The nub, as Justice Gorsuch put it at the end of his concurrence, was this: “Speaking with and in favor of a foreign adversary… Continue reading