[EL] Rohrabacher-Lowenthal bill

[Samuel Bagenstos]

1.  I'm not sure Paul is right about that (though I could easily see the
Court agreeing with him).

2.  Even if he is, one could draw a distinction between Congress delegating
districting authority away from the legislature and Congress deciding to
adopt a districting plan first generated by someone else.

3.  The "might . . .  but might not" therefore seems right.

On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 12:13 PM, Marty Lederman <lederman.marty at gmail.com>
wrote:

> If the Court declares the AZ map invalid (which is by no means a sure
> bet), and if Congress were to enact this law, it would almost certainly be
> challenged on constitutional grounds.  In his briefs and argument to the
> Court, Paul Clement argued that "[w]hatever power Congress has under the
> second subclause of the Elections Clause, it does not include the authority
> to
> override the first subclause. . . .  [A federal] law authorizing States to
> deprive state legislatures of their constitutionally-conferred role in
> prescribing
> regulations for congressional elections and redelegate that authority
> elsewhere would be [a] palpable violation of the Constitution."
>
> I tend to think the question of limits on Congress's "second subclause"
> power is not nearly as clear-cut as Paul suggests; but I think it's fair to
> say that if the Court rules against the AZ law, this legislation *might* preserve
> the Commission's districting map . . . or it might not.  (Of course the
> Court itself might say something in its opinion to clarify the scope of
> Congress's power that could greatly affect the analysis and point either in
> favor or against Congress's authority to, in effect, ratify and instantiate
> otherwise unconstitutional commission-drawn maps.)
>
> Thoughts?
>
> On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 11:49 AM, Dan Vicuna <DVicuna at commoncause.org>
> wrote:
>
>>  Hello everybody,
>>
>> The Rohrabacher-Lowenthal bill defending Congressional maps drawn by
>> independent commissions is attached.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>>
>> Dan Vicuna
>>
>> National Redistricting Coordinator
>>
>> Common Cause
>>
>> Phone: (213) 623-1216
>>
>> Twitter: @DanVicuna <https://twitter.com/danvicuna>
>>
>> www.commoncause.org/redistricting
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Law-election mailing list
>> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
>> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>



-- 
Samuel Bagenstos
sbagen at gmail.com
Twitter: @sbagen
My University of Michigan homepage:
http://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=sambagen
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20150522/164e8c0e/attachment.html>