[EL] ELB New and Commentary 10/23/15
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Thu Oct 22 20:59:49 PDT 2015
“One Ron Paul staffer convicted, another acquitted”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76968>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 8:56 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76968>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Des Moines Register:
<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2015/10/22/split-verdict-ron-paul-endorsement-trial/74252782/>
The high-profile trial of two former Ron Paul presidential campaign
staffers accused of buying an Iowa senator’s endorsement and then
lying about it ended Thursday with a muddled verdict from a jury
stuck at an impasse.
The jury acquitted Jesse Benton, Paul’s former campaign chair, of
lying to FBI agents and convicted deputy campaign manager Dimitri
Kesari of a charge of causing false records.
They also acquitted him of an obstruction of justice charge. But the
jury was hung on three additional charges against Kesari —
conspiracy, causing false campaign expenditures and false statements
scheme — holding open the possibility of a retrial. The judge gave
federal prosecutors 10 days to decide whether they’ll seek to retry
Kesari.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76968&title=%26%238220%3BOne%20Ron%20Paul%20staffer%20convicted%2C%20another%20acquitted%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>,chicanery
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Va. House map constitutional, federal judges rule”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76966>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 8:49 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76966>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-house-map-constitutional-federal-judges-rule/2015/10/22/4dccbaf8-78ff-11e5-b9c1-f03c48c96ac2_story.html>
A panel of three federal judges ruled Thursday that the 12 House of
Delegates districts that Democrats challenged in federal court are
constitutional, giving Republicans a win for now in Virginia’s
fraught political map-making battle.
The 2-to-1 ruling comes four months after a separate three-judge
panel sided with Democrats in a similar case centered on the state’s
redistricting of its congressional map four years ago….
Brian Cannon, executive director of OneVirginia2021, which pushes
for nonpartisan redistricting, said he was surprised and
disappointed by the court’s ruling.
“The court had a choice between whether these districts are racially
gerrymandered or politically gerrymandered,” he said. “The court
chose [to rule that] this was a political gerrymander, which while
completely damaging to our democracy, is completely legal. This case
makes a case for reform. We’ve got to make political gerrymandering
illegal.”
You can find the 155 page majority opinion and the 21 page dissenting
opinionat this link. <https://www.scribd.com/doc/286562480/Bethune-Hill>
I expect there will be an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76966&title=%26%238220%3BVa.%20House%20map%20constitutional%2C%20federal%20judges%20rule%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
“Which States Could Adopt Automatic Voter Registration Next?”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76964>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 8:32 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76964>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Governing reports.
<http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-automatic-voter-registration-california-oregon.html>
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76964&title=%26%238220%3BWhich%20States%20Could%20Adopt%20Automatic%20Voter%20Registration%20Next%3F%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
Sam Issacharoff: Can Judges Stabilize Fragile Democracies?
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76887>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 8:00 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76887>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The following is the third of three guest posts by NYU’sSam Issacharoff
<https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.overview&personid=23845>about
his new book, Fragile Democracies
<http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/comparative-law/fragile-democracies-contested-power-era-constitutional-courts>:
fragile <http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/fragile.png>
Recent American forays into the toppling of non-democratic regimes have
stressed elections as the immediate goal, and often the only one. The
history of post-World War II democracies is that such electoral moments
tend to be short-lived. The first election either becomes the last
election as power consolidates, or it becomes the last meaningful
election as leaders for life emerge.
Elections in the absence of institutionalized democratic politics yield
the ephemeral gains of the Arab Spring or the even more fleeting efforts
at democratic governance in the Central Asian former republics of the
USSR. The hard question is whether any strategy for consolidating
democracy that depends upon courts can meaningfully forestall the
descent into strong-man rule.
In the short run, the answer seems to be that courts can play this role.
The confrontation with President Uribe in Colombia was the most direct,
but courts have forced antidemocratic groups to temper their message to
stand for office in India, Turkey, and Israel. Courts thwarted efforts
to drive the opposition out of politics in Poland, to prevent outright
fraud in the early days of Ukrainian democracy, to force the PRI to
electoral accountability in Mexico.
A quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the question for
the third wave of democracy is how stable will this new form of strong
constitutionalism prove to be. The book’s answer is unfortunately
tentative. The aim of new democracies is more than just having initially
powerful courts, in much the same way that the holding of an initial
election may be necessary but woefully insufficient. Where courts have
been able to provide breathing room for the development of oppositional
political institutions and bounded exercises of power, the experiment
appears to be holding. But, as countries from South Africa to Thailand
to Ukraine show, if these constraints do not take hold, the prospects
for democracy are poor.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76887&title=Sam%20Issacharoff%3A%20Can%20Judges%20Stabilize%20Fragile%20Democracies%3F&description=>
Posted incomparative election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=107>
“Pro-Trump super PAC shutting down amid questions about ties to
Trump campaign” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76962>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 7:37 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76962>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo reports
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/22/pro-trump-super-pac-shutting-down-amid-questions-about-ties-to-trump-campaign/?postshare=4961445567644887>:
A super PAC with ties to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is
shutting down in an effort to put an end to building questions about
the closeness of the two operations, the group’s lead consultant
said Thursday.
After The Washington Post reported this week on multipleconnections
between Trump and the Make America Great Again PAC
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-ties-emerge-between-trump-operation-and-super-pac/2015/10/20/80e7450a-7753-11e5-bc80-9091021aeb69_story.html>,
Mike Ciletti, the Colorado-based operative running the group, said
he had decided to close up shop.
“It’s an issue that I have relationships with Mr. Trump’s staff,” he
said in a phone interview. “I will eliminate the questions and shut
down the super PAC.” Ciletti’s decision was first reported
byPolitico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/trump-super-pac-shuts-down-215093>.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76962&title=%26%238220%3BPro-Trump%20super%20PAC%20shutting%20down%20amid%20questions%20about%20ties%20to%20Trump%20campaign%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
Stat of the Day <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76960>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 7:36 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76960>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
“Jeb raised only three times as much from small donors as did Lawrence
Lessig, the semi-obscure Harvard professor, running as a Democrat, who
was too fringey to be invited to a debate that featured Lincoln Chaffee,
who had only 29 itemized donors through the third quarter of 2011. And
Jeb’s total amount, $4.2 million, raised from donations under $2,000 is
just $1 million more than the total fundraising of Lindsey Graham, who
is polling at 0 percent. Jeb’s supporters are maxed out, and he has no
grassroots support to grow new ones.”
–National Review,Jeb Bush is Toast
<http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425932/gop-primary-fundraising-jeb-bush-ted-cruz-donald-trump>
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76960&title=Stat%20of%20the%20Day&description=>
Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Attorney General Paxton Asks SCOTUS to Declare Redistricting
Attorneys’ Fees Award Unconstitutional Under Shelby County v.
Holder” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76957>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 12:34 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76957>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Press release:
The Texas Attorney General’s Office today petitioned the U.S.
Supreme Court in/State of Texas v. Wendy Davis, et al/. to review
and hold unconstitutional an award of attorneys’ fees to parties who
challenged Texas’s redistricting maps. The lower courts awarded
these parties fees based on the Voting Rights Act’s unconstitutional
preclearance framework, which the Supreme Court nullified in 2013
in/Shelby County v. Holder/.
“Supreme Court opinions have the binding effect of law the day they
are issued,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “The lower
courts were unjustified in compelling Texas to pay attorneys’ fees
under a law that was invalidated as unconstitutional a full year
earlier. We are asking the Court to step in to preserve its
authority to establish the supreme law of the land.”
In 2011, Texas filed a lawsuit seeking federal preclearance of its
redistricting maps under the unconstitutional preclearance
framework. While the case was pending at the Supreme Court, the
Court in/Shelby County/held that this preclearance framework imposed
unconstitutional “federalism costs” on states like Texas./Shelby
County/therefore established that Texas’s redistricting plans were
never subject to federal preclearance in the first place.
A year after/Shelby County/was decided, a district court awarded
attorneys’ fees to several parties opposing Texas in the
preclearance lawsuit. The D.C. Circuit affirmed that ruling, holding
that/Shelby County/did not take effect the day the Supreme Court
decided it – but only after the clerk sent the lower court a
certified copy of the judgment several weeks later. Contrary to the
D.C. Circuit’s conclusion, numerous other federal courts of appeals
and state high courts recognize that Supreme Court decisions are
immediately binding precedent.
Texas is asking the Supreme Court to intervene to confirm that (1)
the Constitution does not permit attorneys’ fees to be awarded based
on a lower-court victory predicated on an unconstitutional statute,
and (2) lower courts cannot refuse to apply the Supreme Court’s
precedents for nearly a month after they issue.
To view the brief filed today in the U.S. Supreme Court, please
visit:https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/Texas_v_Davis_Petition_for_a_Writ_of_Certiorari.pdf.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76957&title=%26%238220%3BAttorney%20General%20Paxton%20Asks%20SCOTUS%20to%20Declare%20Redistricting%20Attorneys%E2%80%99%20Fees%20Award%20Unconstitutional%20Under%20Shelby%20County%20v.%20Holder%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted inSupreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>,Voting
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
“Off the campaign trail, Scott Walker is changing the way Wisconsin
holds elections” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76955>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 12:32 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76955>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Weigel.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/22/off-the-campaign-trail-scott-walker-is-changing-the-way-wisconsin-holds-elections/>
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76955&title=%26%238220%3BOff%20the%20campaign%20trail%2C%20Scott%20Walker%20is%20changing%20the%20way%20Wisconsin%20holds%20elections%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,election
administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Civil Rights Legal Group Picks New President”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76953>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 12:31 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76953>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
BLT
<http://www.nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202740460176/Civil-Rights-Legal-Group-Picks-New-President?cmp=share_twitter&slreturn=20150922152611>:
Kristen Clarke, a civil rights lawyer for the New York Attorney
General’s office, will become the new president and executive
director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the
organization said Thursday.
“This is an incredibly important moment” for the civil rights
movement, Clarke told The National Law Journal. “We’ve seen
incredible progress,” she said, but there are “stark reminders” of
civil rights work remaining to be done in criminal justice, voting
rights, housing and employment.
Clarke, 40, heads the New York AG’s Civil Rights Bureau and
previously worked at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. At the
legal defense fund in 2011, she argued in Washington federal
district court in the Shelby County, Alabama, voting rights case
that eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Congratulations!
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76953&title=%26%238220%3BCivil%20Rights%20Legal%20Group%20Picks%20New%20President%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted inelection law biz <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>
“Equal Representation” Should Include Non-Citizens
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76951>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 9:22 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76951>byRichard Pildes
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>
From the Washington Post’s new/In Theory/section, here is a snippet
frommy contribution
today<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/10/22/equal-representation-shouldnt-exclude-non-citizens/>to
the Symposium on/Evenwel:/
[A]s a matter of constitutional principle, states should have the
discretion, at the least, to continue to decide that equal
protection means ensuring equal representation for equal numbers
of/people/. Two powerful ideas about voting and representation
support this choice.
First, representatives have to address the realities created by all
those who live in their districts, not just those eligible to vote.
Non-citizens and the young in places like Los Angeles and Chicago
inevitably impose burdens on government services — for law
enforcement, schools and the provision of basic services such as
water delivery or emergency medical care. Indeed, that is part of
the reason immigration is a major political issue. If
representatives do not have the political power necessary to
advocate for the total number of people in their districts, their
ability to meet their representative obligations is dramatically
curtailed.
Second, even if we focus only on eligible voters, their voting power
is also significantly diminished if those ineligible to vote are not
“counted” when districts are designed. Not surprisingly, the
distribution of public resourcescorrelates
<http://politics.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/4760/equalVotesEqualMoney.pdf>with
the distribution of political representation. Yet if your area and
mine both have 50,000 eligible voters and we each can elect one
representative, but my area has an additional 50,000 non-citizens or
young people, my representative doesn’t have the same power to
pursue law-enforcement resources to keep my area safe as yours does
for your district. Similarly, my access to my representative is
diminished if I have to compete with 100,000 others in the district,
but you have to compete with only 50,000.
For my view that the deeper issue in the case is whether states should
be constitutionally/obligated/to base districts on total population
numbers, seehere
<http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/07/symposium-misguided-hysteria-over-evenwel-v-abbott/>.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76951&title=%26%238220%3BEqual%20Representation%26%238221%3B%20Should%20Include%20Non-Citizens&description=>
Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“No, the Voting Rights Act is not in danger”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76949>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 9:05 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76949>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Robert Driscoll
<http://newbostonpost.com/2015/10/21/no-the-voting-rights-act-is-not-in-danger/>:
So the good news is that the VRA is alive and well, covers the
entire country, and protects everyone — regardless of race — from
actual discriminatory voting procedures and practices. The bad news
is that the Democratic Party pretends that this in not so, accuses
anyone who questions the need to re-impose “special provisions” on
certain jurisdictions of racism, and the media plays along. Consider
that the next time you hear the Voting Rights Act is under assault.
– See more at:
http://newbostonpost.com/2015/10/21/no-the-voting-rights-act-is-not-in-danger/#sthash.NXywiDAh.dpuf
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76949&title=%26%238220%3BNo%2C%20the%20Voting%20Rights%20Act%20is%20not%20in%20danger%26%238221%3B&description=>
Posted inThe Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voter id
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>
Read Plaintiffs’ #SCOTUS Reply Brief in Evenwel
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76947>
Posted onOctober 22, 2015 7:58 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=76947>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Here
<https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work/Evenwel%20Reply%20Brief.pdf>,
via the Brennan Center’sEvenwel
<http://www.brennancenter.org/legal-work/evenwel-v-abbott>page.
Share
<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D76947&title=Read%20Plaintiffs%26%238217%3B%20%23SCOTUS%20Reply%20Brief%20in%20Evenwel&description=>
Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
--
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://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20151022/92c0d722/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: share_save_171_16.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1504 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20151022/92c0d722/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: fragile.png
Type: image/png
Size: 72347 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20151022/92c0d722/attachment-0001.png>
View list directory