[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/27/15
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Wed May 27 08:14:38 PDT 2015
Why the Court Should Leave the Choice of One Person One Vote Rules
to the States <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72842>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 8:12 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72842>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Inmy Slate
piece<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/05/evenwel_v_abbott_supreme_court_case_state_districts_count_voters_or_total.html>on
the Supreme Court’s decision to hear Evenwel, which I wanted to title
“Unsettling Precedents,” I argue that whether to use total population or
total voters (or perhaps some other denominator) in redistricting to
comply with one person, one vote rules is properly left to the states.
(I use the piece to argue for the irony of conservatives pushing states
to adopt only a single measure of one person, one vote, which not only
goes against earlier precedent but also is not tied to the actual text
of the Constitution.)
I thought it worth pointing out that I’ve developed at length an
argument for when the Supreme Court needs to intervene in election cases
(primarily to protect a “core” of political equality rights) and when
the Court needs to intervene (when a question does not involve the core,
but involves issues which are appropriately addressed by states within a
range of choices). Think of it as a kind of political equality
federalism. I make the argument in my 2003 book,The Supreme Court and
Election Law: Judging Equality from Baker v. Carr to Bush v. Gore
<http://www.amazon.com/Supreme-Court-Election-Law-Equality/dp/0814736912/ref=la_B0089NJCR2_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432739533&sr=1-8>,
so this is no new idea for me. But/Evenwel/ and potential variations on
the one person, one vote rule are a perfect example of my argument.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
New FEC Petition for Rulemaking to Stop “Contribution Laundering”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72840>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 8:06 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72840>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
See here. <https://www.makeyourlaws.org/fec/laundering>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
“Supreme Court to consider redefining ‘one-person, one-vote’
principle” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72838>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 8:03 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72838>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Richard Wolf reports
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/26/supreme-court-voting-rights/27800607/>for
USA Today.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“A Major Test of Equal Representation for All”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72836>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:55 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72836>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
David Gans
<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-major-test-of-equal-representation.html>:
The “voters only” claim in/Evenwel/should be rejected. How could it
possibly be unconstitutional for state and local governments to
apportion representatives based on “the theory of the
Constitution”? When/Evenwel/is heard next Term, the Justices should
recognize that states have the authority to ensure equal
representation for all persons by drawing state legislative lines on
the basis of total population.
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Posted inSupreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Of People, Trees, Acres, Dollars, and Voters”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72834>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:54 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72834>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Joey Fishkin
<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2015/05/of-people-trees-acres-dollars-and-voters.html>:
And so the question before the Court now is this: does a poor,
urban, Latino kid, not yet 18, deserve to be able to say “this
representative represents me. Not acres, trees, dollars, active
voters, and so on, but me—I am their constituent.” Or to put it
differently: the question is whether the cities should enjoy the
same per capita representation as their suburban and rural, whiter,
older counterparts. And what an odd coincidence: that was actually
the original question in/Reynolds v. Sims/itself. But like so much
in contemporary constitutional litigation in the era of John Roberts
and Ed Blum, the Evenwel case comes at the law in a kind of
funhouse-mirror reverse, aiming to destroy in Equal Protection’s
name a substantial chunk of what that clause has built.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“5 Points On How ‘One Person, One Vote’ Is Suddenly In Jeopardy”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72832>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:51 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72832>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Tierney Sneed
<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/texas-supreme-court-districting>for
TPM.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
Three Former SEC Commissioners Urge SEC to Adopt Political
Disclosure Rule for Companies <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72829>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:50 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72829>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Letter
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/SEC-Letter-on-Political-Activities.pdf>from Bevis
Longstreth. William Donaldson. and Arthur Levitt .
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
Divided 4th Circuit Panel Revives Redistricting Suit in Wake County,
NC School Board Elections <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72826>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:47 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72826>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Very interesting opinion and dissent
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Wright-v-McCrory-4th-Cir.pdf>,
relying on a Larios-type claim for rejecting deviations from one person,
one vote principles.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
Super PACs Pro and Con <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72824>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:39 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72824>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
USA Today editorial
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/05/25/campaign-finance-super-pacs-federal-election-commission-editorials-debates/27928689/>: 2016
presidential campaigns chase money, with no cop on the beat: Our view
Brad Smith response
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/05/25/super-pacs-center-for-competitive-politics-editorials-debates/27928735/>:
Super PACs are Not the Problem
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“What Actually Happens During a Kentucky Recanvassing?”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72822>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:37 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72822>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Josh Douglas
<http://www.uky.edu/electionlaw/analysis/what-actually-happens-during-kentucky-recanvassing>on
the case.
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Posted inelection administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Watchdog Groups Urge DOJ to Name Special Outside Counsel to
Investigate Legality of Bush Super PAC Scheme”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72820>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:36 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72820>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Woof.
<http://www.democracy21.org/uncategorized/watchdog-groups-urge-doj-to-name-special-outside-counsel-to-investigate-legality-of-bush-super-pac-scheme/>
More
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/05/27/campaign-finance-watchdogs-push-justice-dept-to-investigate-jeb-bushs-pac/?postshare=9131432737106644>from
WaPo.
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Posted incampaign finance
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,Department of Justice
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>
“Federal case against Mission postmen sent to prosecutors”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72818>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:35 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72818>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
News
<http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/federal-case-against-mission-postmen-sent-to-prosecutors/article_ce331698-0194-11e5-bd66-83f666fb0cf6.html>from
Texas:
The case of two Mission postal workers facing an investigation into
whether they sold mail-in ballots during the last La Joya school
district board election was recently turned over to federal
prosecutors for review.
The case focuses on whether the postmen conspired to sell lists of
voters receiving mail-in ballots to candidates running in the
November elections, including Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra,
who denies involvement with the men.
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Posted inabsentee ballots <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>,chicanery
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Texas keeping thousands from registering, voting group alleges”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72816>
Posted onMay 27, 2015 7:33 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72816>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
MSNBC
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/texas-keeping-thousands-registering-voting-group-alleges>:
housands of Texans are being disenfranchised thanks to chronic
failures in the state’s voter registration system, a Democratic
group alleges based on government records and extensive additional
evidence.
The charges raise serious questions about Texas’s commitment to
making the ballot box accessible to new voters, and about its
compliance with federal voting law.
In aletter
<http://b.3cdn.net/battletx/3819d68599ec44bfe1_59m6b0x1j.pdf>sent
Wednesday to Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos, lawyers for
Battleground Texas, which works to register voters in the state,
wrote that the state government’s “voter registration failures are
widespread and systematically undermining the right to vote in Texas.”
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,NVRA (motor voter)
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
Quote of the Day: Evenwel Edition <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72814>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 8:33 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72814>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
“We don’t have a national list of citizens,” he said. The data cited
in the Texas case come from a census survey of about 2% of
households that counts citizens.
“If you are only counting 2% of the households, there will be wild
inaccuracies. It would be crazy to force states to draw districts
with this data,” he said.
Nate Persily, quoted by theLAT.
<http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-supreme-court-voting-districts-20150526-story.html#page=2>
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Supreme Court could deal California ‘a one-two punch’ on
redistricting” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72812>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 8:04 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72812>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The LA Times reports.
<http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-california-redistricting-20150527-story.html>
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Big GOP Donors Giving to New Accounts Congress Created to Help
Political Parties” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72810>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 5:25 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72810>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bloomberg BNA
<http://news.bna.com/mpdm/MPDMWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=69448965&vname=mpebulallissues&jd=a0g7e2c1e5&split=0>:
Big Republican donors are taking advantage of new, high-dollar
limits on political party contributions established by Congress last
year, with David Koch, Sheldon Adelson and Henry Kravis counted
among the latest donors providing a total of more than $3.4 million
in large contributions collected by GOP committees last month,
according to recently filed Federal Election Commission reports….
*GOP Outraising Dems Over 10 to 1*
The big Republican contributions were included in monthly reports
disclosing financial activities in April, which were filed May 20
with the FEC and analyzed on the Political Money Line website.
The April FEC reports indicated that all three national Republican
committees—the NRSC, NRCC and RNC—received a total of more than $3.4
million in their new accounts just in April.
National Democratic committees, meanwhile, have been lagging far
behind in fund-raising in the new high-dollar accounts. The
Democratic total for April of $261,000 was less than a tenth of
total haul for new Republican accounts, even though some top leaders
of both major parties agreed to the controversial provision passed
by Congress late last year to increase party contributions.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether ‘one person, one vote’
includes non-citizens” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72808>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 4:59 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72808>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
David Savage report
<http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-supreme-court-voting-districts-20150526-story.html>s
for the LA Times.
See also
<http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-scotus-congressional-delegation-20150526-story.html>Melanie
Mason’s, “Could U.S. Supreme Court Shrink California’s Congressional Clout?”
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Supreme Court to hear challenge to Texas redistricting plan”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72806>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 4:56 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72806>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bob Barnes reports
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-to-hear-texas-redistricting-case/2015/05/26/ab0c9c80-03b4-11e5-8bda-c7b4e9a8f7ac_story.html>for
WaPo.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Supreme Court to Consider How to Calculate Size of Voting
Districts” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72804>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 4:54 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72804>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jess Bravin reports
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-to-consider-how-to-calculate-size-of-voting-districts-1432651924>for
the WSJ.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
Prediction: The Most Important Brief in the Evenwel Case
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72802>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 4:49 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72802>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
…will likely be an amicus brief by political scientists (probably
supporting neither party) explaining how difficult and contentious it
would be to put in practice a voters only measure of population for
redistricting purposes.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Supreme Court to Weigh Meaning of ‘One Person One Vote’”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72800>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 4:21 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72800>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Adam Liptak reports
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/us/supreme-court-to-weigh-meaning-of-one-person-one-vote.html>for
the NYT:
In the new case, the Supreme Court may decide that states can
determine for themselves which standard to use. Even such a ruling
could have a major impact, Professor Pildes said.
“If the court leaves it to states to decide, we could see the
politics of immigration come to affect the politics of redistricting
even more,” he said. “State legislatures would be given a green
light to locate more power or less power in areas that have large
geographic concentrations of noncitizens. Those areas would have
more power if the rule is equality of residents and less power if
it’s equality of eligible voters.”
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Only Voters Count? Conservatives ask the Supreme Court to restrict
states’ rights and overturn precedent.”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72797>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 3:31 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72797>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I have writtenthis new piece
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/05/evenwel_v_abbott_supreme_court_case_state_districts_count_voters_or_total.html>for
/Slate/. It begins:
For the second time in a year, the Supreme Court has agreed to wade
into an election case at the urging of conservatives. In both cases
it has done so despite the issue appearing to be settled by
long-standing precedent. Ina case expected to be decided
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/arizona-state-legislature-v-arizona-independent-redistricting-commission/?wpmp_switcher=desktop>next
month,/Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent
Redistricting Commission/, conservatives asked the court to bar
states from usingindependent redistricting commissions
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2015/03/arizona_state_legislature_and_redistricting_commission_arguments_supreme.html>to
draw congressional lines. In a case the courtagreed to hear
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72739>Tuesday,/Evenwel v. Abbott/
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/evenwel-v-abbott/>/,/conservatives
asked the court to require states to draw their legislative district
lines in a particular way: Rather than considering the total
population in each district, conservatives argue, the lines should
instead divide districts according to the number of people
registered or eligible to vote. Most states use total population for
drawing districts, which includes noncitizens, children, felons, and
others ineligible to vote.
In both Supreme Court cases, there is great irony in the fact that
they are being brought by conservatives, who usually claim to
respect precedents and states’ rights. The challengers are not only
asking the court to revisit issues that seemed to be settled by
decades-old precedent. If successful, these cases will undermine
federalism bylimiting states’ rights
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2015/03/arizona_state_legislature_and_redistricting_commission_arguments_supreme.html>to
design their own political systems.
A ruling favorable to conservatives in the/Evenwel/case, especially
if extended to congressional redistricting, could shift more power
to Republicans, who are more likely to live in areas with high
concentrations of voters.
It concludes:
The conservatives behind/Evenwel/don’t seem bothered much by the
intrusion on states’ rights that a decision in their favor would
engender. That’s because they are motivated more by the fact that
noncitizens are getting representation, and in their belief that
this is “diluting” the voting power of citizens. They arethe same
people <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72739>who backed attacks on
affirmative action at the Supreme Court in the/Fisher v. University
of Texas at Austin/__case
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/fisher-v-university-of-texas-at-austin/>and
successfully got the Supreme Court to strike down a key portion of
the Voting Rights Act in the/Shelby County v. Holder/
<https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/570/12-96/>case.
It is an agenda not about states’ rights but about getting the
Supreme Court to force states to empower conservatives and force
onto all of us the theories of representation and power they envision.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D72797&title=%E2%80%9COnly%20Voters%20Count%3F%20Conservatives%20ask%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20restrict%20states%E2%80%99%20rights%20and%20overturn%20precedent.%E2%80%9D&description=>
Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,residency
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=38>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
Commissioner Goodman Responds to Commissioner Ravel on Partisan Bias
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72794>
Posted onMay 26, 2015 3:18 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72794>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Following up onCommissioner Ravel’s comments
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72709> about statements made by
Commissioner Goodman <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=72688>, Commissioner
Goodman sends along the following further response:
*COMMISSIONER GOODMAN:*
At last Thursday’s FEC meeting, a Commissioner proposed that the FEC
plow through its docket of cases within three months as a service to
the complainants. This proposal cannot be considered blind to the
fact that the FEC’s complainant class has filed three complaints
against a Republican or conservative respondent for every one
involving a Democratic or liberal respondent. Those who work inside
the FEC have seen how enforcement dockets and meeting agendas can be
manipulated to focus on particular respondents or to sequence
matters in ways that influence their substantive consideration. For
example, matters can be sequenced to advance or avoid nuanced
distinctions between cases involving similar facts and circumstances
leading to disparate treatment of similarly situated respondents.
Furthermore, some cases are more complicated than others. For
these reasons, I argued that any policy on enforcement procedure
must be fundamentally fair. The proposal at the meeting fell short
on this count and suffered from other technical deficiencies I
explained.
As I stated at last Thursday’s meeting, I believe the Commission
should expedite resolution of more cases for the benefit of the
citizens who find themselves entangled with the FEC’s enforcement
process. Accordingly, I recommended that the Commission expedite
consideration of all matters while affording Commissioners
reasonable discretion to consider matters subject to the following
timing factors:
(1) deferring action in a case that may be the subject of parallel
enforcement by another government agency;
(2) deferring action in a case that might affect ongoing litigation;
(3) timing action to avoid direct election intervention (similar to
the policy of the U.S. Department of Justice);
(4) considering several matters involving one respondent at one time
rather than piecemeal; and
(5) considering several matters involving different respondents but
raising the same legal issues at one time rather than separately
(risking disparate treatment).
Other Commissioners may have other timing considerations, and I
would be open to discussion about those. Whatever policy guides the
Commission’s timing, however, it must be fair and free from even the
perception that it will discriminate against those affiliated with a
specific political party or ideology.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
--
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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