[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/15/15
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Thu Oct 15 08:00:13 PDT 2015
“Kansas Voter ID Law Sets Off a New Battle Over Registration”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76710>
Posted onOctober 15, 2015 7:58 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76710>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Today’s must-read,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/us/politics/kansas-voter-id-law-sets-off-a-new-battle-over-registration.html?ref=politics&_r=0>from
Julie Bosman in the NYT:
The move has touched off a new battle over voter registration,
pitting the Republican secretary of state, Kris W. Kobach, an ardent
supporter of strict voting rules, against Democrats and advocates of
voting rights who say the law was intended to suppress voter
turnout. Mr. Kobach was named in a federal lawsuit filed in
September by two plaintiffs who had applied to register to vote in
Kansas but were added to the roll of incomplete registrants when
they did not submit proof of their citizenship.
In an interview, Mr. Kobach said culling the list would help address
complaints from county clerks that notifying people of the law’s
requirements was costly and often ineffective. He asserted that most
of the people on the list had moved since their initial registration
or “never had any intention of voting in the first place.” And he
defended the law as necessary to prevent voter fraud.
“We now live in a society where there is a record number of
noncitizens who live with us,” he said. “This is a common sense way
of ensuring that only U.S. citizens are able to vote.”
But advocates of voting rights said the Kansas law, like about a
dozen similar voter identification laws passed in Republican-led
states since 2011, is intended to depress voter turnout among groups
that lean Democratic, including low-income and minority voters.
Douglas Bonney, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties
Union of Kansas, said the Kansas requirements might particularly
discourage young voters who do not have ready access to the required
documents. “It has caused a massive wall for them,” he said.
An analysis by The New York Times of the list of voters showed that
more than half of them were under 35, and 20 percent were from 18 to
20 years old. Fifty-seven percent of the people on the list did not
declare a party; 23 percent were Democrats; and 18 percent were
Republicans. The vast majority — 90 percent — had never voted before.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,fraudulent fraud squad
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Federal court rejects lawsuit challenging anti-gerrymandering law”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76708>
Posted onOctober 15, 2015 7:51 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76708>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Miami Herald
<http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2015/10/federal-court-rejects-lawsuit-challenging-anti-gerrymandering-law.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter>:
In a stinging blow to opponents of the state’s anti-gerrymandering
amendments, a federal court this week has thrown out a lawsuit filed
by two Florida Republican Party officials who claimed the new law
violated the constitution because it had a “chilling effect” on
their free speech and petition rights.
Read the rulinghere
<http://miamiherald.typepad.com/files/norris-and-maggard-order.pdf>.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
“Voters are mad about mega-donors, and it’s helping Trump and
Sanders” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76706>
Posted onOctober 15, 2015 7:49 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76706>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo reports.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/voters-are-mad-about-mega-donors-and-its-helping-trump-and-sanders/2015/10/14/953c1b10-70ec-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Court rejects appeal by group suing over Montana election laws”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76704>
Posted onOctober 15, 2015 7:47 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76704>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP
<http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/court-rejects-appeal-by-group-suing-over-montana-election-laws/article_33b818f8-4a34-5c30-ac91-1e932aee7cb9.html>:
A federal appeals court has rejected a request by a tax-exempt
organization to overrule a judge’s order that it must reveal certain
information about itself in the group’s lawsuit challenging
Montana’s election laws.
Montanans for Community Development had asked the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals to overturn U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen’s
ruling that it must answer questions or disclose documents about the
group’s formation, operations, advertising and communications with
candidates and other groups.
The 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday that the group had not shown the case
warrants the appeals court’s intervention.
Montanans for Community Development filed an application Wednesday
with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an emergency stay of
Christensen’s ruling, attorney Anita Milanovich said. “This is our
last stop, if you will,” Milanovich said.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
Ben Carson Puts Campaign “on Hold” to Fundraise? And Sell Books
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76702>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 7:55 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76702>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Huh. <http://t.co/5kUkOFSxp2>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“No, Americans have not become more ideologically polarized”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76700>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 2:54 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76700>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Seth Hill and Chris Tausanovitch write for theMonkey Cage.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/10/13/no-americans-have-not-become-more-ideologically-polarized/>
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Posted inpolitical parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,political polarization
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>
TX Redistricting Plaintiffs Try to Prod Dilatory Three-Judge Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76697>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 2:19 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76697>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The Texas redistricting case hasbeen pending before a three-judge court
<http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/PerezVTexas.php>in San
Antonio for a /long/time. The case was filed in May 2011. Supplemental
briefs had been ordered, and filed, and…. nothing.
So now the plaintiffs have filedpapers demanding a preliminary
injunction
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/motion-for-pre.-injunction-10-14-2015.pdf>if
there is not a decision soon. Maybe that gets the court moving. Who
knows? Here’s the introduction:
In the event the Court has not issued a decision on the merits by
the time the 2016 election cycle commences, the parties filing this
motion—LULAC plaintiffs, NAACP plaintiffs, Perez plaintiffs, Quesada
plaintiffs, and Rodriguez plaintiffs—urge the Court to grant them a
prelimi-nary injunction, barring implementation of the 2013 House
and Congress redistricting plans for the 2016 election cycle.
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Voting Rights
Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
Another I’m Just a Bill Parody—But This is a Different Kind of Bill
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76695>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 1:47 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76695>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Regular ELB readers know I collectI’m Just a Bill parodies
<http://electionlawblog.org/?s=%22i%27m+just+a+bill%22&x=0&y=0>, which
are mostly about the dysfunctional Congressional legislative process.
Buthere’s a creative and very different one
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS2crNL3IKc&feature=youtu.be>,
demanding an accounting by the Jewish National Fund of funds being used
for tree planting etc. in West Bank settlement areas.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Donald Trump’s ‘SNL’ Stint Could Put FCC’s ‘Equal-Time’ Rule in
Play” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76693>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 1:40 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76693>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
CNN reports.
<http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/14/media/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-saturday-night-live-equal-time/index.html?iid=SF_LN>
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Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Republicans Gone Wild: Q&A with Mann and Ornstein”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76691>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 12:15 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76691>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Frank
Wilkinson<http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-14/thomas-mann-and-norman-ornstein-on-republicans-gone-wild>sits
down with Norm and Tom.
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Posted inpolitical parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,political polarization
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>
“Civil Rights in a Desegregating America”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76689>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 12:12 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76689>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Nick Stephanopoulos has postedthis draft
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2673026>on SSRN
(forthcoming, /University of Chicago Law Review/). Here is the abstract:
The law largely has overlooked one of the most important
sociological developments of the last half-century: a sharp decline
in residential segregation. In 1970, 80% of African Americans would
have had to switch neighborhoods for blacks to be spread evenly
across the typical metropolitan area. By 2010, this proportion was
down to 55%, and was continuing to fall. Bringing this striking
trend (and its causes) to the attention of the legal literature is
my initial aim in this Article.
My more fundamental goal, though, is to explore what desegregation
means for the three bodies of civil rights law — housing
discrimination, vote dilution, and school segregation — to which it
is tied most closely. I first explain how all three bodies
historically relied on segregation. Its perpetuation by housing
practices led to disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing
Act. It meant that minority groups were “geographically compact,” as
required by the Voting Rights Act. And it contributed to the
racially separated schools from which segregative intent was
inferred in Brown and its progeny.
I then argue that all of these doctrines are disrupted by
desegregation. Fair Housing Act plaintiffs cannot win certain
disparate impact suits if residential patterns are stably
integrated. Nor can claimants under the Voting Rights Act satisfy
the statute’s geographic compactness requirement. And desegregating
homes usually result in desegregating schools, which in turn make
illicit intent difficult to infer.
Lastly, I offer some tentative thoughts about civil rights law in a
less racially separated America. I am most optimistic about the Fair
Housing Act. “Integrated and balanced living patterns” are among the
statute’s aspirations, and it increasingly is achieving them.
Conversely, I am most pessimistic about the Voting Rights Act. One
of its objectives is minority representation, which is threatened
when minorities are politically distinctive but spatially dispersed.
And a mixed verdict seems in order for school desegregation law.
Rising residential integration eventually should produce rising
school integration. But it has not done so yet, and even when it
does, this improvement may not reach schools’ other racial imbalances.
Highly recommended!
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Posted inVoting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
“American Democracy Under Siege” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76687>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 9:28 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76687>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Quite a lineup <https://www.facebook.com/events/1164521330230354/>at
Harvard Oct. 29—part of the Scholars Strategy network.
Wish I could be there. Perhaps there will be a webcast.
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Posted incampaign finance
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,Plutocrats United
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=104>
Madeline Brand Talks to Larry Lessig About Election Reform, His
Campaign <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76685>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 7:48 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76685>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Listen
<http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/politicon-gold-fame-citrus-and-the-wet-prince-of-bel-air/lawrence-lessig-runs-for-election-reform>to
KCRW’s Press Play.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“The Gender Gap in Political Giving”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76683>
Posted onOctober 14, 2015 7:24 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76683>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT’s
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/upshot/the-gender-gap-in-political-giving.html?ref=politics>The
UpShot:
More women vote than men, and it has been true for decades. But
women lag way behind men in another measure of political
participation. Only about 30 percent of big donors to campaigns are
women, which, in an election that’s forecast to feed on billions of
dollars of donations, is a gender gap in political influence. The
estimated gap in overall fund-raising is even larger, because the
average contribution from a man is much larger than the average for
a woman. For every dollar flowing from big donors into the campaigns
of sitting members of Congress, about 76 cents has come from a man
and 24 cents from a woman.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
--
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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