[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/24/13

[Rick Hasen]

<http://electionlawblog.org/>


    What If The Supreme Court Releases the Fisher Affirmative Action
    Case Tuesday or Wednesday? <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48679>

Posted on March 23, 2013 7:46 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48679> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The /Fisher/ affirmative action case 
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/fisher-v-university-of-texas-at-austin/?wpmp_switcher=desktop>before 
the Supreme Court was argued October 10. It is one of three cases from 
the October sitting 
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2012/>not yet decided.  It 
is certainly plausible it could be released on Tuesday or Wednesday, 
dates the Court is set to issue opinions next week (according to an 
Editor's Note at the top of SCOTUSBlog.)

It turns out Tuesday and Wednesday are also the dates of the arguments 
in the gay rights cases: Prop 8 
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/hollingsworth-v-perry/?wpmp_switcher=desktop> 
and DOMA 
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/windsor-v-united-states-2/?wpmp_switcher=desktop>. 
The same day release of the audio in these cases indicates, in the words 
of Adam Liptak 
<https://twitter.com/adamliptak/status/314131210546847745>, that they 
are the "biggest" cases of the term, more than /Fisher/ or the /Shelby 
County /voting rights case.

/Fisher/ may not be ready.  But if the opinion is ready to roll, it 
would be an act of mercy for Supreme Court journalists if the Chief 
Justice holds it for a week.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29> | Comments Off


    "Bloomberg's TV Blitz on Guns Puts Swing Senators on the Spot"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48676>

Posted on March 23, 2013 7:36 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48676> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/nyregion/bloombergs-tv-blitz-on-guns-puts-swing-state-senators-on-the-spot.html?hp&_r=0>: 
"Determined to persuade Congress to act in response to that shooting, 
Mr. Bloomberg on Monday will begin bankrolling a $12 million national 
advertising campaign that focuses on senators who he believes might be 
persuaded to support a pending package of federal regulations to curb 
gun violence. The ads, in 13 states, will blanket those senators' 
districts during an Easter Congressional recess that is to be followed 
by debate over the legislation."

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> | 
Comments Off


    "University of South Carolina professor hacks Courier-Journal online
    poll to 'get the discussion going'"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48672>

Posted on March 23, 2013 7:17 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48672> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Courier-Journal 
<http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130322/BUSINESS/303220125/University-South-Carolina-professor-hacks-Courier-Journal-online-poll-get-discussion-going-?nclick_check=1>:

    An unscientific online poll conducted on The Courier-Journal's
    website was hacked Thursday by two University of South Carolina
    students and a professor.

    The poll, hosted by Polldaddy, asked website viewers, "Should
    overseas U.S. military personnel be allowed to vote via the
    Internet?" It referred to an initiative by Kentucky Secretary of
    State Alison Lundergan Grimes to make voting easier for overseas
    personnel.

    Although most respondents had voted "yes" Thursday afternoon, the
    poll showed 91 percent opposed by the time it was taken down Friday
    by The Courier-Journal. By that time, the poll had logged 67,121
    votes, far more than the 2,000 to 4,000 votes typically recorded by
    The Courier-Journal's online polls. Editors said that the purposely
    skewed results no longer represented the views of the website's users.

    The hacking was overseen by Duncan Buell, a computer science
    professor at the University of South Carolina who monitors
    electronic voting.

You can find a related press release at this link 
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/3-22-13-Courier-Journal-poll-hacked-release.pdf>. 
It begins: "Should we take an online vote on the definition of 'irony'?"

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Posted in chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election 
administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, internet voting 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=49>, The Voting Wars 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, voting technology 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40> | Comments Off


    "How Foreign Governments Make Sure You Don't Know They're Lobbying
    You" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48670>

Posted on March 23, 2013 7:11 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=48670> 
by Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BuzzFeed 
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/how-foreign-governments-make-sure-you-dont-know-theyre-lobby>:

    The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, an obscure nonprofit based
    in Belgium, was founded by a former top official in Ukraine's
    governing party and appears to be a proxy for the country's
    pro-Russian government. In 2012, the group hired a pair of
    high-powered American lobbying firms to advocate on its behalf.

    But what those lobbyists, who include Obama-era Democratic
    superlobbyist Tony Podesta, are actually doing is a mystery. Unlike
    the Washington firms hired directly by foreign governments,
    Ukraine's leadership has slipped its American agenda through an
    increasingly popular loophole in the federal law intended to
    regulate foreign activity in the United States, allowing it to
    follow the minimal disclosure practices required of domestic
    corporate lobbies, not the extensive ones demanded of registered
    foreign agents. It's a loophole now used by a range of
    post-communist governments, in particular, with money to burn and no
    particular love of transparency. And it offers a path to the end of
    a disclosure regime put in place in 1938, amid American concern over
    the effects of Nazi propaganda.

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Posted in legislation and legislatures 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>, lobbying 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28> | 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
http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org

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