Once again I condemn the use of political violence. It is equally repugnant when directed at liberals or conservatives, Democrats or Republicans, governors, presidents, or activists like Kirk.
I have had to post sentiments like this far too often in the last few years, and I fear this will not be the last.
A democracy cannot fairly function with political violence and fears of violence becoming routine.
My condolences to Kirk’s family, friends, and supporters.
Had a great conversation with Tonya Mosley for NPR’s Fresh Air: “Before 2026’s midterms, President Trump wants to ban mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines, and change voting rules. Legal expert Richard Hasen discusses the future of free and fair elections.”
This weekend, FSU will host the 2025 Election Law Conference. Jacob Eisler is the organizer, and I am serving as an informal advisor. This conference is a sequel to last year’s Election Law Conference at Washington University in St. Louis, which primarily featured the work of junior scholars. My hope is that our field will have an annual conference going forward and that it will continue to grow over time.
You can find the fantastic line-up of speakers here and below:
12:30 p.m. – Lunch and Welcome Remarks (Erin O’Hara O’Connor) – D’Alemberte Rotunda
2:15 p.m. – Theorizing Representation (Jacob Eisler, moderator) – MCB 208
3:30 p.m. – Break (Coffee) – D’Alemberte Rotunda
4:00 p.m. – Electoral Process under Strain (Alex Tsesis, moderator) – MCB208
5:30 p.m. – Break (Snacks/Beverages) – D’Alemberte Rotunda
6:00 p.m. – Keynote Speaker Stephanopoulos, Redistricting Without Tradeoffs, (Jacob Eisler intro) – D’Alemberte Rotunda
8:30 a.m. – Breakfast – D’Alemberte Rotunda
9:15 a.m. – Democratic Process in the Shadow of Economic Power (Amanda Driscoll, moderator) – MCB 208
10:30 a.m. – Break (Coffee) – D’Alemberte Rotunda
11:00 a.m. – Districting and Democracy (Travis Crum, moderator) – MCB 208
12:15 p.m. – Final Remarks & Lunch – D’Alemberte Rotunda
Before the abandoned federal attempt to prosecute Donald Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, state and local prosecutors brought cases against his fake electors.
The term referred to the people who, in several of the swing states won by former President Joe Biden, declared themselves to be the rightful electors who would vote for Trump in the Electoral College. It was part of Trump’s long-shot bid to push Congress to reject Biden’s electors and throw the election to him.
Democratic prosecutors filed indictments against them before Trump himself was charged by a special prosecutor appointed by Biden’s Department of Justice, making the fake electors the most prominent example of how those who helped Trump faced consequences for their attempt to reverse the election results. Many of those cases have now hit a dead end or are just limping along.
The charges against Trump were dropped after he won the election, following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting presidents immunity for much of their conduct in office. While the fake elector cases ground on, several have hit legal roadblocks — most dramatically on Tuesday when a Michigan judge dismissed charges against 15 Republicans who had been charged by that state’s Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel.
Judge Kristen Simmons said prosecutors had not shown that the defendants intended to defraud the public.
“Right, wrong or indifferent, it was these individuals and many other individuals in the state of Michigan who sincerely believed — for some reason — that there were some serious irregularities with the election,” said Simmons, who was originally appointed by the state’s Democratic governor and then won reelection to the bench.
….Marian Sheridan, one of the people charged in Michigan whose case was dismissed, said Tuesday that the group’s plan was to act as a “backup” or “lifeboat” in case the election results were overturned.
“We were not fake,” she said. “We were alternate.”
Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said such arguments were part of the reason he viewed the fake elector cases as some of the “weaker” criminal ones filed after the 2020 election.
But he said the combination of the failures of those prosecutions, coupled with Trump’s avoiding liability and his pardons of more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes in the cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, are a grim combination.
“All of it fits together to create really bad incentives for a system of free and fair election and peaceful transitions of power,” Hasen said.
I’m excited to announce we are launching The Democracy Project at NYU School of Law. Bob Bauer, Sam Issacharoff, and I will lead The Project. Here’s link to the Project’s website.
Dissatisfaction with democratic government has been pervasive for the last decade throughout the West. We believe meeting this challenge requires engaging with diverse ideological perspectives, as well as putting the challenges to democracy here in the context of challenges to democracy in the international context.
We are launching this Project with a series of “100 ideas in 100 days.” An exceptionally rich range of perspectives includes voices from the business community, such as Mark Cuban; former high-ranking elected or appointed government officials, such as Jake Sullivan and Chris Sununu; comparative scholars of democracy and former high-court judges in other countries, including Pratap Mehta, Kim Lane Scheppele, Larry Diamond, and Jonathan Sumption; scholars of Congress, such as Sarah Binder, Molly Reynolds; voices from civil society, including Eboo Patel; and numerous scholars and others on American democracy.
The series begins with three provocative essays:
Frances Lee, who argues we need an honest assessment of the failings of expertise and experts during Covid
Randy Kennedy, who argues against the view that those fighting for democracy should use the means their opponents use.
Nick Bagley, who argues that liberal proceduralism and excessive participatory rights have tied government in knots and caused a loss of faith that democratic governments can do things effectively.
We plan to build on these initial 100 essays over 100 days to address in many ways this era’s challenges to democratic government.
Hansi Lo Wang for NPR.