[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/22/13

Rick Hasen rhasen at law.uci.edu
Mon Jul 22 08:21:19 PDT 2013


    "Rothenblog: Want to Run for Congress? Prepare to Ask People for
    Money 8 Hours a Day" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53285>

Posted on July 22, 2013 8:19 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53285> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Nathan Gonzales blogs 
<http://blogs.rollcall.com/rothenblog/want-to-run-for-congress-prepare-to-ask-people-for-money-eight-hours-a-day/>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> | 
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    "Why Nearly Everyone in Congress Has a Leadership PAC These Days"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53282>

Posted on July 22, 2013 8:14 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53282> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

/National Journal/ 
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/why-nearly-everyone-in-congress-has-a-leadership-pac-these-days-20130722>reports 
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/why-nearly-everyone-in-congress-has-a-leadership-pac-these-days-20130722>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> | 
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    "Congress, Justice Department Eye Changes to Voting Rights Act"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53279>

Posted on July 22, 2013 7:42 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53279> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NLJ reports 
<http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202611621136&kw=Congress%2C%20Justice%20Department%20Eye%20Changes%20to%20Voting%20Rights%20Act&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&cn=20130722&src=EMC-Email&pt=Daily%20Headlines&slreturn=20130622104215>.

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Posted in Voting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | 
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    "The STOCK Act and the Political Intelligence Industry"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53276>

Posted on July 22, 2013 7:38 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53276> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Noam Noked blogs 
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2013/07/20/the-stock-act-and-the-political-intelligence-industry/#more-49318>.

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Posted in conflict of interest laws <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20> 
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    "Native rights group sues state over elections"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53272>

Posted on July 22, 2013 7:34 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53272> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

ADN 
<http://electionlawblog.org/Native%20rights%20group%20sues%20state%20over%20elections%20%20Read%20more%20here:%20http://www.adn.com/2013/07/19/2982611/native-rights-group-sues-state.html#storylink=cpy>:

    Two elderly Yup'ik speakers and two tribal organizations from
    Southwest Alaska filed a federal lawsuit Friday against state
    election officials, accusing them of failing to provide language
    assistance at the polls as required by federal law.

According to a press release 
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2872_001.pdf>, the group 
is also seeking to get two areas in Alaska "bailed in" for preclearance 
under section 3 of the Voting Rights Act.

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    Minnesota Law Review Symposium on Ballot Initiatives
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53269>

Posted on July 22, 2013 7:28 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53269> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>


    Foreword, /Minnesota Law Review/ Symposium
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/foreword-minnesota-law-review-symposium/>

by Tom Pryor
Read More 
<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/foreword-minnesota-law-review-symposium/> 
:: View PDF 
<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Foreword_MLR.pdf>


    When Common Wisdom Is Neither Common nor Wisdom: Exploring Voters'
    Limited Use of Endorsements on Three Ballot Measures
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/common-wisdom-common-wisdom-exploring-voters%e2%80%99-limited-endorsements-ballot-measures/>

by Craig M. Burnett and Mathew D. McCubbins

Ballot measures offer voters the opportunity to shape policy decisions 
directly. It remains unclear, however, if direct democracy asks too much 
of voters. Do voters have the capacity to make informed decisions on 
ballot measures that have important and far-reaching policy 
consequences? The common wisdom in the academic literature is that 
voters routinely use endorsements [...]

Read More 
<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/common-wisdom-common-wisdom-exploring-voters%e2%80%99-limited-endorsements-ballot-measures/> 
:: View PDF 
<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BurnettMcCubbins_MLR.pdf>


    The Political Morality of Voting in Direct Democracy
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/political-morality-voting-direct-democracy/>

by Michael Serota and Ethan J. Leib

The voting levers in candidate elections and in direct democracy 
elections are identical. The political obligations that bind the 
citizens that pull them are not. This Essay argues that voters in direct 
democracy elections, unlike their counterparts in candidate elections, 
serve as representatives of the people and are, accordingly, bound by 
the ethics of political [...]

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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/political-morality-voting-direct-democracy/> 
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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/SerotaLeib_MLR.pdf>


    Interpreting Initiatives
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/interpreting-initiatives/>

by Michael D. Gilbert

Judges claim to resolve ambiguities in initiatives by identifying and 
giving force to "voter intent," but scholars reject that on the ground 
that such intent does not exist. This Article argues otherwise. We can 
understand the search for voter intent to be a search for the 
majoritarian interpretation. The interpretation preferred by the median 
voter [...]

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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/interpreting-initiatives/> 
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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Gilbert_MLR.pdf>


    Campaign Finance in the Hybrid Realm of Recall Elections
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/campaign-finance-hybrid-realm-recall-elections/>

by Elizabeth Garrett

In the ever-evolving jurisprudence of campaign finance, one principle 
has endured: the rules governing candidate elections are analyzed 
differently from the rules governing ballot measures because, according 
to the courts, the latter elections do not implicate the state's 
legitimate interest in combating quid pro quo corruption. It should now 
be apparent to even a casual [...]

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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/campaign-finance-hybrid-realm-recall-elections/> 
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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Garrett_MLR.pdf>


    Campaign Disclosure in Direct Democracy
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/campaign-disclosure-direct-democracy/>

by Michael Kang
Read More 
<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/campaign-disclosure-direct-democracy/> 
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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Kang_MLR.pdf>


    Direct Democracy and Campaigns Against Minorities
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/direct-democracy-campaigns-minorities/>

by Todd Donovan

I explore some of the indirect effects of holding popular votes on 
minority rights. This Article examines how direct democracy may expand 
the scope of conflict over issues of minority rights by allowing 
campaigns that subject a minority group to public judgment. Campaigns 
may precipitate messages that treat a minority group as a threat, as [...]

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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/direct-democracy-campaigns-minorities/> 
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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Donovan_MLR.pdf>


    When Is It OK to Limit Direct Democracy?
    <http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/limit-direct-democracy/>

by Shaun Bowler

There are many commentators and critics who want to limit direct 
democracy for a variety of reasons. Whatever the reason (chaotic policy 
making/uninformed voters/exaggerated influence of money, etc.) the end 
result is the same: initiatives and direct democracy should become 
harder to use. The difficulty is twofold: first, often the criticisms 
are greatly over-stated. In fact [...]

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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/articles/limit-direct-democracy/> :: 
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<http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Bowler_MLR.pdf>
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Posted in direct democracy <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62> | 
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    "Inside the Counting Room: Oregon County Details Steps After Ballot
    Tampering Conviction" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53266>

Posted on July 22, 2013 7:25 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53266> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

A ChapinBlog 
<http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/electionacademy/2013/07/inside_the_counting_room_orego.php>.

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Posted in chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election 
administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18> | Comments Off


    The Voting Wars...Now in Paperback
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53261>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:54 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53261> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Amazon 
<http://www.amazon.com/The-Voting-Wars-Election-Meltdown/dp/0300198248/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1329286945&sr=1-2-catcorr>.

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Posted in Voting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | 
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    Roadmap to Attack the Constitutionality of Section 2 of the VRA
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53259>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:53 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53259> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Courtesy of Will Baude 
<http://www.volokh.com/2013/07/20/thinking-through-the-constitutionality-of-section-2/>(who 
says this is not part of a "hidden agenda to undermine the Voting Rights 
Act").

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Posted in Voting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | 
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    "Free Speech, Fair Elections, and Campaign Finance Laws: Can They
    Co-Exist?" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53255>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:44 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53255> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Joel Gora has posted this draft 
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2295052> on SSRN 
(/Howard Law Journal/).  Here is the abstract:

    A prominent politician once observed that, "You can either have free
    speech or fair elections, but you can't have both." In the view of
    this article, that has it precisely backwards. In fact, you cannot
    have one without the other. The election of 2012 tested that thesis
    because it was the most expensive federal election in history and it
    contained what many claimed was a great deal of negative campaign
    speech and rhetoric. This paper argues that, under the First
    Amendment, election speech is supposed to be "uninhibited, robust
    and wide-open" and unrestrained in both quantity and content.
    Accordingly, the increase in campaign spending and activity by
    candidates, parties, non-profits organizations, labor unions,
    corporations and so-called "super pacs" is a good thing for free
    speech principles and democracy, not a bad thing, and efforts to
    impose greater limitations on campaign funding should be opposed.
    The same is also true for the supposed increase in the "negative"
    nature of the content of much campaign speech. There too a proper
    view of the First Amendment would applaud and encourage such robust
    debate about core issues of governance. The article concludes by
    advocating a number of reforms which will make our electoral speech
    even more vigorous than it is now.

I'm looking forward to reading this!

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    "Virginia Is Corrupt: It's shocking what Gov. McDonnell and attorney
    general Cuccinelli get away with, thanks to the state's lax ethics
    laws." <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53252>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:34 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53252> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Dahlia Lithwick writes 
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/07/mcdonnell_cuccinelli_star_scientific_virginia_s_lax_ethics_laws_let_politicians.html> 
for /Slate./

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, 
campaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12> | Comments Off


    "Election officials: Group behind anti-DiCiccio ads may have
    violated campaign-finance laws" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53249>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:27 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53249> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News from AZ 
<http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20130715election-officials-group-behind-anti-diciccio-ads-may-violated-campaign-finance-laws-beat.html?nclick_check=1>:

    State elections officials have determined there is "reasonable
    cause" to suspect that a left-leaning advocacy group behind a series
    of attack ads directed at Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio is
    violating campaign-finance laws.

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    "Why Cities Are So Poorly Governed"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53247>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:25 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53247> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Matt Yglesias 
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/07/19/urban_malgovernment_lack_of_partisan_competition_is_a_disaster.html>:

    Conservatives are eager to blame Detroit's problems hazily on
    "Democrats," and in most respects I think that's wildly misleading.
    But I do think there's an important sense in which they're correct.
    American cities across the board suffer from a lack of partisan
    competition that undermines democratic accountability.

    My view of this is heavily based on the work of George Mason
    University's David Schleicher, and I really encourage you to look at
    his research for a long version of the story
    <http://www.law.gmu.edu/faculty/directory/fulltime/schleicher_david>. But
    the short version is that ordinary voters rely heavily on party
    affiliation as a heuristic when deciding who to vote for. If you
    move to a new place with same-day voter registration, then pay zero
    attention to local politics up to and including the names of your
    local member of Congress, then show up at the voting booth to vote
    in a House election you're in fact perfectly capable of making a
    well-informed decision about who to vote for. If you generally like
    legal abortions, equal rights for gays and lesbians, higher taxes,
    and more regulation of private businesses then you should vote for
    the Democrat. If you want tax cuts, abortion bans, and lax
    regulatory enforcement then you should vote for the Republican. You
    may have a hard time making up your mind because you feel
    cross-pressured (say you love tax hikes /and/ abortion bans) but
    it's easy to know what politicians stand for even without knowing
    anything about them. In fact, thanks to things like the Hastert Rule
    it actually barely matters whether the specific individual you're
    voting for is totally orthodox or not. Partisanship makes life easy.

    Shift to a big city, though, and you have a mess on your hands.

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Posted in political parties <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, 
political polarization <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68> | Comments Off


    "The Cuomo-Schneiderman Moreland Commission"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53244>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:23 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53244> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jerry Goldfeder and Myrna Perez write 
<http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1202611530178&slreturn=20130620192202>.

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Posted in Uncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> | Comments Off


    "Time to get the foxes (Illinois politicians) out of the henhouse
    (legislative redistricting)" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53241>

Posted on July 20, 2013 4:21 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53241> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Nick Stephanopoulos has written this oped 
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07-18/opinion/ct-perspec-0718-redistrict-20130718_1_legislative-districts-henhouse-commission> 
for the Chicago Tribune.

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Posted in citizen commissions <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=7>, 
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    Did Election Fraud Help Win the Civil War?
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53236>

Posted on July 20, 2013 1:22 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53236> by 
Richard Pildes <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

One remarkable feature of the American Civil War is that in its midst we 
nonetheless held regularly scheduled elections. And as is well-known, in 
the 1862 mid-term election, President Lincoln and the Republican Party 
suffered devastating losses in the U.S. House.  The Republican Party 
barely retained partisan control of the House, with the plurality but 
not the majority of seats (even with almost no representation of the 
Confederate States), although the Republicans did remain firmly in 
control of the Senate.  The five largest states in the North, all of 
which had gone for Lincoln in 1860 --- New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, and Lincoln's home state, Illinois --- now sent Democratic 
majorities to Congress, as did New Jersey.  Without effective Republican 
control of the House, many of the legislative measures essential to the 
war and emancipation might not have been enacted during the critical 
years between 1863-65.

But did the Republican Party manage to maintain control of the House 
only because of election fraud?  That's the striking, underdeveloped 
allegation I ran across in reading a provocative new book on the origins 
of the Civil War, Thomas Fleming's A Disease in the Public Mind: A New 
Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War 
<http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Public-Mind-Understanding-Fought/dp/0306821265>. 
Fleming makes this assertion just in one paragraph, which I quote in 
full here:

                    Worse, the Republican Party took a drubbing in the
    November midterm elections. Kentucky was carried for the Union using
    totally desperate tactics. At each polling place, there were
    detachments of Union troops. When a Democrat arrived to vote, the
    officer in command warned him that he could not guarantee his safety
    on the way home. Most of the time, the man decided not to vote.
    Kentucky's fraudulently elected delegation enabled the Republicans
    to retain control of the House of Representatives. If the Democrats
    had won, they would have had the power to cut off funding for the war.

I have never seen the assertion before that Lincoln's continuing support 
in the House was possible only due to this kind of intimidation that 
flipped Kentucky's congressional delegation.  But is the assertion right?

The concluding line of this passage is obviously wrong:  even had the 
Democrats controlled the House, they would not have had the power to cut 
off war funding without enacting legislation, which would have required 
the Senate and Lincoln to approve.  But partisan control of the House 
was still hugely consequential for the second half of Lincoln's 
presidency.  The 38th Congress enacted the first draft in U.S. history; 
legislation creating America's first progressive income tax, to pay for 
the War; it sent a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery to the 
states for review; it authorized the transcontinental railroad; it 
admitted West Virginia (on condition that it abolish slavery) and Nevada 
into the Union; and anticipating ratification of the 13th Amendment, 
that Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau to assist former slaves 
making the transition into full citizenship.  So an enormous amount was 
at stake, not surprisingly, in unified Republican control of the 
government from 1863-65.

I've started trying to track down whether Fleming could possibly be 
right that election fraud in 1862 kept control of the government in 
Republican hands.  Democrats did pick up 28 seats in these elections, 
which gave them 72; Republicans still had 86 seats, though; the other 25 
seats were held by the Unionist party (mostly Southerners who did not 
want to be associated with the Republican Party).  But Kentucky had 9 
representatives, all of them Unionists; if I'm right about that, even 
assuming the Kentucky delegation was fraudulent and would have 
legitimately been all Democratic, as Fleming asserts, the House would 
still have been 86 R; 81 D; and 16 Unionist.  So it would appear the 
Republican plurality would still have been in control.  But perhaps I'm 
missing something about the dynamics of the remaining Unionist members; 
would the Democrats have been able effectively to control the House, had 
the Kentucky delegation been all Democratic?  I've looked at Fleming's 
footnotes, but they don't seem on point at all.

By the way, the reasons the mid-war election was such a blow to Lincoln 
are themselves evidence of how dramatic and momentous the 1862 elections 
were.  The consensus is that Lincoln was repudiated at the polls (but 
not quite so badly as to lose control of the House) for three reasons.  
First, Lincoln had issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in 
late September, with the promise to make it law on January 1, 1863.  
Second, two days later, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus throughout the 
country, in order to enforce conscription; Democrats argued that Lincoln 
was seeking to make himself a dictator.  And third, the war appeared to 
be going badly for the Union on the eve of the elections.

If anyone has further insight, get in touch.  I'm curious both about 
whether it's reasonable to conclude that intimidation/fraud flipped 
Kentucky's congressional delegation and, if that's credible, whether 
that would have changed partisan control of the House in this critical 
period.  I'm not sure I've seen either claim made before.

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Posted in election law and constitutional law 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=55>, political parties 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, Uncategorized 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> | Comments Off


    Peggy Noonan Claims "bombshell" in IRS Mess: Involvement of IRS
    Chief Counsel <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53232>

Posted on July 19, 2013 10:26 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53232> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Story here 
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324448104578614220949743916.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop>.

Off soon to my event but waiting to hear if others concur with this 
assessment.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law 
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22> | Comments Off


    "Spivak: Eliot Spitzer and NY's incumbent-protection ballot rules"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53229>

Posted on July 19, 2013 10:17 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53229> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Newday [corrected] oped 
<http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/spivak-eliot-spitzer-and-ny-s-incumbent-protection-ballot-rules-1.5718074>.

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Posted in petition signature gathering 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=39>, third parties 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47> | Comments Off


    "Conservatives prepare to finish off Voting Rights Act"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53226>

Posted on July 19, 2013 10:01 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=53226> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

MSNBC reports 
<http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/19/conservatives-prepare-to-finish-off-the-voting-rights-act/>.  
Zachary Roth, the reporter, tried to get conservative lawyers to discuss 
their views on whether section 2 is constitutional.

    Asked via email to confirm that Section 2 is constitutional, Carvin
    didn't respond.

    Bert Rein, the veteran conservative lawyer who successfully argued
    /Shelby County/ before the Supreme Court, ruled out a direct
    constitutional challenge. ("We do not believe that it is
    unconstitutional on its face," Rein told MSNBC.) But he allowed that
    certain uses of Section 2 could go further than the Constitution
    allows. "It's all a question of how it's interpreted in any
    particular case," Rein said.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
hhttp://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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